MODIFIED ANT COLONY SYSTEM ALGORITHM FOR IP-TRACEBACK PROBLEM

Abstract

Determining the origin of packet over the internet is called IP traceback. When the network is formed, it also contains the attacker in the form of viruses, malwares, Trojans etc. It is very difficult to identify the exact location of these attackers which is termed as IP tracebackproblem. To deal with this problem, ant colony algorithm can be effectively used. Hence the ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) which is a probabilistic strategy for rectifying the computational issues is used to find optimal attack path. This algorithm is inspired by behaviour of real ants.Ants initially move randomly, and when they find food on any path they fetch it and lay down Pheromone for other ants to follow the same. On the off chance that different ants find such a way, they are likely not to continue going aimlessly, but instead follow the trail. But the main issue with these algorithms is that they converge to local suboptimal solutions and the feasible attack path is not identified properly. To overcome this problem an algorithm,called modified-ACS scheme is proposed. A global heuristic mechanism is used by this algorithm to find a feasible attack path. The algorithm is implemented in NS2.To obtain sufficient routing information of the network, we are using Hamiltonian Routing Strategy. Hence, we conclude that modified-ACS algorithm gives slightly more convergence time than conventional algorithms but yields more globally optimised solution.