EBR: Routing Protocol to Detect Blackhole Attacks in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

The presence of malevolent nodes in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) would lead to genuine security concerns. These nodes may disturb the routing process or deform the pattern of the data packets passing through the network. The MANET is extremely liable to attacks, owing to its characteristics of the network framework, such as the absence of infrastructure, moveable topology, and a centralized control unit. One of the most common attacks in MANETs is the blackhole attack. MANET nodes are susceptible to spectacular degradation of network performance in the presence of such attacks. In this regard, detecting or preventing deceitful nodes that will launch blackhole attacks is a challenge in MANETs. In this paper, we propose an Enhanced Blackhole Resistance (EBR) protocol to identify and resist nodes that are responsible for blackhole attacks. EBR can avoid congested traffic by passing the data packets through a safe route with the minimum RTT. The EBR protocol uses a combination of time to live (TTL) and round trip time (RTT), which is also called a TR mechanism, to detect the blackhole attacks. Our algorithm does not require any cryptographic or authentication mechanisms. Simulation results prove that EBR behaves better than other protocols in terms of throughput, end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio, energy, and routing overhead.