Gateway Selection Protocol in Hybrid MANET Using DYMO Routing

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel gateway (GW) selection protocol in hybrid Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). We focus on the situation that occurs when specialized, sensitive data is sent to the Internet from MANET nodes. These special data types are especially susceptible to security risks such as information leak and data falsification. Therefore, it is necessary for such special data to be forwarded by a secure/trusted GW which is controlled by a trusted network administrator. However, there should be multiple GWs deployed in a MANET, where the cost ineffectiveness makes it difficult for a network administrator to simultaneously manage every GW. Because of the risk of forwarding special data through an unmaintained GW, we propose a routing protocol which allows a source node to have sensitive data forwarded to the Internet through a trusted GW. To achieve this desirable performance, we improve upon one of the newest routing protocols, Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO), which works in consideration of application data. Through simulations, we evaluate our protocol in comparison with the conventional DYMO protocol. The results show that our protocol can make MANET source nodes choose GWs for specific data.