Security In Wireless Mesh Networks Research Articles

Resource allocation and admission control algorithm based on non-cooperation game in wireless mesh networks

With wireless mesh networks widely deployed in daily life, more and more researchers have begun to put their eyes on the problem of resource allocation and load balancing as well as networking security in wireless mesh networks. The admission control strategy takes great advantages in resource allocation and network load, thus having been widely applied in wireless networking. To maximize the benefits of game participants, it is essential to build an effective admission control model for user admission and resource allocation. Game theory, as an effective analytical modeling tool, is widely used in wireless networking researches. The access points determine whether to allow user’s access according to the admission control mechanism, for which this paper investigates resource allocation in wireless mesh networks. Our main works and contributions are as follows. Firstly, this paper analysis the importance of admission control in wireless mesh network, and addresses the problem of resource allocation and user admission control with game theory on the basis of existing researches. Secondly, this paper depicts the architecture and features of wireless mesh network as well as the functionality of admission control. Then, an admission control algorithm with the non-cooperative game theory for bandwidth and connections allocation in each network area is proposed based on the networking coverage, in which the Nash equilibrium existence is proved. This paper evaluates the proposed algorithm with blocking rate and system efficiency in the networks, which indicates that it is effective and efficient to allocate resource for each area dynamically.

A Survey on Wireless Mesh Networks and its Security Issues

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are have secured a significant position in the technological world due to their unique characteristics. These networks are dynamic, selfhealing, and self-organizing in which the nodes reflexively set-up and maintain mesh connectivity with each other. Having these characteristics, WMNs enjoy great benefits such as low-upfront costs, reliability, and prompt troubleshooting. Despite all these fringe benefits, one of the greatest challenges in wireless mesh networks is that they are exposed to a number of hazardous security vulnerabilities. In this paper we investigate WMNs security attacks, security goals and various defense mechanisms for defending the attacks.

Data Security in Wireless Mesh Networks

Data Security in Wireless Mesh Networks

Privacy Preserved and Secured Reliable Routing Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks

Privacy preservation and security provision against internal attacks in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are more demanding than in wired networks due to the open nature and mobility of certain nodes in the network. Several schemes have been proposed to preserve privacy and provide security in WMNs. To provide complete privacy protection in WMNs, the properties of unobservability, unlinkability, and anonymity are to be ensured during route discovery. These properties can be achieved by implementing group signature and ID-based encryption schemes during route discovery. Due to the characteristics of WMNs, it is more vulnerable to many network layer attacks. Hence, a strong protection is needed to avoid these attacks and this can be achieved by introducing a new Cross-Layer and Subject Logic based Dynamic Reputation (CLSL-DR) mechanism during route discovery. In this paper, we propose a new Privacy preserved and Secured Reliable Routing (PSRR) protocol for WMNs. This protocol incorporates group signature, ID-based encryption schemes, and CLSL-DR mechanism to ensure strong privacy, security, and reliability in WMNs. Simulation results prove this by showing better performance in terms of most of the chosen parameters than the existing protocols.

Session Based Access Control Mechanism Using ECC in WMN- A Review

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are new emerging potential for strengthening Internet deployment and access. However, for large-scale deployment in some applications due to the lack of the satisfactory guarantees on security. The main challenges exposed to the security of WMNs come from the facts of the shared nature of the wireless architecture and the lack of globally trusted central authorities. A well-performed security framework for WMNs will contribute to network survivability and strongly support the network growth. A low-computational and scalable key management model for WMNs is to guarantee well-performed key management services and protection from unauthorized access. The RSA-based protocols have significant problems in terms of the bandwidth and storage requirements. Currently, the RSA algorithm requires that the key length be at least 1024 bits for long term security, however, it seems that 160 bits are sufficient for elliptic curve cryptographic functions. Thus, use of ECC in wireless mesh network ,can improved security substantially.

A secure and reliable routing protocol for wireless mesh networks

This study proposes an efficient secure routing protocol which considers symmetric and asymmetric links for wireless mesh networks (WMNs). A wireless mesh network is a group of wireless mesh routers and several kinds of wireless devices (or nodes). Individual node cooperates by forwarding packets to each other, allowing nodes to communicate beyond the symmetric or asymmetric links. Asymmetric link is a special feature of WMNs because the wireless transmission ranges of different wireless devices may be different. The asymmetric link enhances WMN coverage. Providing security in WMNs has become an important issue over the last few years. Existing research on this topic tends to focus on providing security for routing and data content in the symmetric link. However, most studies overlook the asymmetric link in these networks. This study proposes a novel distributed routing protocol beyond symmetric and asymmetric links, to guarantee the security and high reliability of the established route in a hostile environment, such as WMNs, by avoiding the use of unreliable intermediate nodes. The routes generated by the proposed protocol are shorter than those in prior works. The major objective of the proposed protocol is to allow trustworthy intermediate nodes to participate in the path construction protocol. The mesh clients out of mesh router wireless transmission range may discover a secure route to securely connect to the mesh router for Internet access via the proposed protocol. The proposed protocol enhances wireless mesh network coverage and assures security.

Multi-operator wireless mesh networks secured by an all-encompassing security architecture

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) consist of a wirelessly connected infrastructure of Mesh Routers (MRs) connected to the Internet via Mesh Gateways. Previous proposals on WMN security mainly focus on mesh networks operated by a single operator and rarely support mobility of Mesh Clients (MCs) with the help of secure roaming and handover procedures. While these approaches protect the communication of MCs against external attackers, they do not take internal attackers into account. In our previous work, we proposed a security architecture for single-operator WMNs, extended this architecture to the multi-operator case to support roaming between operators and secure infrastructure sharing and proposed secure handover procedures within the domain of a single operator. In this paper, we merge the different aspects of our prior proposals together to form a comprehensive security architecture for multi-operator WMNs. Our solution is based on open standards and explicitly addresses internal attackers. In addition, we propose pro-active handover services between different operators and show how dedicated MRs can take over authentication services in time-critical situations such as handover procedures.

An effective Denial of Service Attack Detection Method in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract In order to detect the DoS attack (Denial-of-Service attack) when wireless mesh networks adopt AODV routing protocol of Ad Hoc networks. Such technologies as an end-to-end authentication, utilization rate of cache memory, two pre-assumed threshold value and distributed voting are used in this paper to detect DoS attacker, which is on the basic of hierarchical topology structure in wireless mesh networks. Through performance analysis in theory and simulations experiment, the scheme would improve the flexibility and accuracy of DoS attack detection, and would obviously improve its security in wireless mesh networks.

Group-Key Management Model for Worldwide Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is an upcoming wireless network technology and is mainly used to provide broadband internet in remote locations. It is characterized by minimum fixed infrastructure requirement and is operated in an open medium, such that any user within the range covered by mesh routers may access the network. So a critical requirement for the security in WMN is the authentication of users. However, WMN is far from mature for large-scale deployment in some applications due to the lack of the satisfactory guarantees on security. A wellperformed security framework for WMN will contribute to network survivability and strongly support the network growth or reduction. A key management model to overcome the scalability issue on security aspect for large-scale deployment of WMN i.e. Worldwide WMN is proposed in this work, which aims to guarantee wellperformed key management services and protection from potential attacks. Here, we use a combination of techniques, such as zonebased topology structure, off-line CA, virtual certification authority ) etc.

On Optimization and Security of Multimedia Communication in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are new type of networks in which every node can communicates to all neighboring nodes to enhance network reliability and performance. Network traffic cost optimization and its security in wireless mesh network is a challenging task. The concept of field based routing (FBR) is gaining popularity because it uses a little information to route the packets. These routing algorithms are robust, inexpensive and scalable. Authors believe that the FBR is the better choice for the multimedia communication in wireless mesh networks. Because FBR exchanges little information for building and maintenance of the routing tables. Regardless of robustness and scalability of the FBR it is also prone to different active and passive attacks. In this paper we first study that how multimedia communication can be done using FBR (optimization) and then take some security measures to eliminate the risk of intruder intervention in such communication. Multimedia FBR and its security has been extensively studied using Omnet++ network simulator to identify and isolate the malicious node and to prevent the traffic flows from various active and passive attacks.

Research on Detection Scheme for Denial of Service Attacks in Wireless Mesh Networks

There are a lot of measures to launch DoS attacks from the physical layer to the application layer in wireless mesh networks because of its own characteristics. In order to detect the DoS attack (Denial-of-Service attack) when wireless mesh networks adopt AODV routing protocol of Ad Hoc networks, such technologies as an end-to-end authentication, utilization rate of cache memory, two pre-assumed threshold value and distributed voting are used in this paper to detect DoS attackers, which is on the basic of hierarchical topology structure. Through performance analysis in theory and simulations experiment, the scheme would improve the flexibility and accuracy of DoS attack detection, and would obviously improve its security in wireless mesh networks.

Deauthentication/Disassociation Attack: Implementation and Security in Wireless Mesh Networks

M esh Networks have emerged as a widely deployed, new paradigm with improved performance and reliability. M esh Networks offer ubiquitous network connectivity along with better flexibility and adaptability features. Despite of these benefits, Wireless M esh Networks are vulnerable to attacks due to the absence of trusted central authority and the unprotected nature of the management frames. This security breach leads to the spoofing of legitimate client's information. Thus facilitating the launch of dos attacks on the behalf of the legitimate identity holders .The influence of DOS attacks is highly intense, because complete network resources have been consumed by the attacker after launch of the attack. Consequently, it leads to deterioration of network performance thus halting the communication. Therefore, security is a major concern that needs to be dealt with to alleviate the effect of these attacks . So that the deterioration and disruption caused by these attacks to the network performance has been thwarted. In this paper we have implemented the dos attacks on the real wireless mesh test bed and analyzed their impact on the network performance and proposed a security algorithm for the detection of these attacks.

Differentiated security in wireless mesh networks

AbstractThe upcoming IEEE 802.11s standard enables easy establishment and maintenance of wireless mesh networks in residential and enterprise scenarios. They, however, need special attention with respect to security. Due to multi‐hop communication and routing on layer 2 in mesh networks, attacks on the routing, selective forwarding, and eavesdropping on confidential data become relatively easy. To avoid such attacks, we introduce differentiated security which is based on protection levels associated with nodes in the network. Participation in the MAC layer routing is facilitated according to the respective protection level of a node. Using additional cryptographic protection our approach can also avoid unintentional disclosure of confidential data. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Security for QoS assured wireless and mobile networks

The rapid evolution of wireless technologies as well as their pervasive diffusion in everyday’s life has dramatically changed the world in the last two decades. On one side, service providers/operators can nowadays leverage new wireless technologies to reach new types of customers in a cost effective way; on the other side, end users are actually given richer and more flexible “connectivity opportunities” to obtain the required services. The down side of this scenario deals with the increased complexity in the management of all the system components. Users/customers are becoming more and more demanding in terms of the perceived quality of service (QoS), eventually expecting the very same quality they experience in wired networks in the wireless realm. To this extent, advanced wireless systems must be able to support and manage high-quality services, thus matching the heterogeneous requirements coming from the users. Concurrently, risks and security threats are inherent in any wireless network, and there is an increasing demand for effective security-enforcing techniques to attain authentication, privacy, confidentiality, data integrity, privacy, access control, and non-repudiation, when operating and/or using wireless networks. In this scenario, the deployment of security measures and the provision of QoS represent two critical and tightly coupled challenges in the design of network services, architectures, and protocols in today’s inter-networked world. Such challenges are even made harder in mobile wireless scenarios where the network infrastructure may feature mobile, energy and resource-constrained network devices. To this extent, the success of specific wireless networking technologies is often dependant on the capability of the specific technology to support QoS, on one side, and to provide security, on the other side. The aim of this special issue is to provide an upto-date snapshot on advanced solutions to support the design and deployment of secure and efficient services in wireless mobile networks. The special issue is composed of seven high-quality contributions, each one focusing on a specific component of the aforementioned framework. The first batch of four papers deals with security aspects. The first two papers in the batch focus on security solutions for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs); namely, the first one, DSA-Mesh: a Distributed Security Architecture forWMNs, proposes a fully distributed security architecture to ensure security and data confidentiality of the communications occurring in the backbone of a WMN; the proposed solution provides a distributed authentication and access control scheme for the wireless mesh routers taking part in the network, as well as a dynamic key distribution algorithm that supports layer-2 encryption. Whilst the wireless mesh architecture addressed in the first paper is general, in the second manuscript onDifferentiated Security in WMNs, the authors target the design of securemechanisms for IEEE 802.11s-basedWMNs. The rationale andmain contribution of the work is the replication in the wireless environment of the virtual LAN structures typical of the wired networks to achieve protection against internal/external attacks including selective forwarding attacks, routing attacks, and eavesdropping. The third contribution, Fast 802.11 handovers with 802.1X re-authentications, targets the issue of supporting secure client mobility in multi-access point Wireless LAN deployments. Namely, the authors analyze the impact of pre-authentication and re-authentication of a mobile client when handing over between two contiguous WLAN access points, and further propose an advance algorithm to reduce the handover latency while maintaining the authentication of the client itself. The last manuscript dealing with security aspects, Characterizing The Greedy Behavior in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, switches the focus from static wireless network (wireless mesh and wireless LANs) to dynamic wireless ad hoc networks, by analyzing the network-wide impact of greedy behaviors of single wireless nodes. The authors further introduce a rational greedy strategy in the radio

Wireless mesh network security: A traffic engineering management approach

The wireless mesh network (WMN) is an emerging multihop, heterogeneous, easily scalable and low cost network. The architecture of the WMN is a connectionless-oriented, mobile and dynamic traffic of routed packets. The mesh infrastructure environment easily forms multiple chains of wireless LANs (WLAN) coupled with the simultaneous multihop transmission of data packets from peripherals via mobile gateways to the wireless cloud. WMN operates as an access network to other communication technologies. This exposes the WMN to numerous security challenges not only in the mesh transmission operation security but also in the overall security against foreign attacks. We surveyed and identified the security vulnerabilities in Internet Protocol (IP) broadband networks, the security challenges in the routing layer of the WMN and explored new concepts to solving security challenges in WMN using traffic engineering (TE) security resolution mechanisms. We analyzed the advantages, comparative strengths and weakness in the use of traffic engineering based on simulation results and evaluations.

A Survey on Security in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks is a new emerging field with its potential applications in extremely unpredictable and dynamic environments. However, it is particularly vulnerable due to its features of open medium, dynamic changing topology, and cooperative routing algorithms. The article surveys the state of the art in security for wireless mesh networks. First, we analyze various possible threats to security in wireless mesh networks. Second, we introduce some representative solutions to these threats, including solutions to the problems of key management, secure network routing, and intrusion detection. We also provide a comparison and discussion of their respective merits and drawbacks, and propose some improvements for these drawbacks. Finally, we also discuss the remaining challenges in the area.

Adaptive link-state routing and intrusion detection in wireless mesh networks

Security in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) has always been a major concern ever since the existence of these networks. The open medium and the lack of physical security make the WMNs susceptible to various kinds of attacks. This study addresses the problem of intrusion detection in WMNs. The authors propose a routing protocol that is capable of detecting intrusions, while undertaking the tasks of routing in WMNs. The authors base the routing tasks in the existing protocol on the existing optimised link-state routing protocol. This protocol uses the sampling mechanism for the detection of malicious information in the network. Concepts of learning automata have been introduced to optimise the sampling process. Two new frame formats and its associated handling procedures have been developed. The authors evaluated the performance of our protocol using network simulator 3. In the experiments performed, the highest achieved intrusion detection rate with the proposed protocol was observed to be 94%.

Design and implementation of MobiSEC: A complete security architecture for wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged recently as a technology for next-generation wireless networking. They consist of mesh routers and clients, where mesh routers are almost static and form the backbone of WMNs. WMNs provide network access for both mesh and conventional clients. In this paper we propose MobiSEC, a complete security architecture that provides both access control for mesh users and routers as well as a key distribution scheme that supports layer-2 encryption to ensure security and data confidentiality of all communications that occur in the WMN. MobiSEC extends the IEEE 802.11i standard exploiting the routing capabilities of mesh routers; after connecting to the access network as generic wireless clients, new mesh routers authenticate to a central server and obtain a temporary key that is used both to prove their credentials to neighbor nodes and to encrypt all the traffic transmitted on the wireless backbone links. A key feature in the design of MobiSEC is its independence from the underlying wireless technology used by network nodes to form the backbone. Furthermore, MobiSEC allows seamless mobility of both mesh clients and routers. MobiSEC has been implemented and integrated in MobiMESH, a WMN implementation that provides a complete framework for testing and analyzing the behavior of a mesh network in real-life environments. Moreover, extensive simulations have been performed in large-scale network scenarios using Network Simulator. Numerical results show that our proposed architecture considerably increases the WMN security, with a negligible impact on the network performance, thus representing an effective solution for wireless mesh networking.

Securing Wireless Mesh Networks

Now found in domestic, commercial, industrial, military, and healthcare applications, wireless networks are becoming ubiquitous. Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) combine the robustness and performance of conventional infrastructure networks with the large service area and self-organizing and self-healing properties of mobile ad hoc networks. In this article, the authors consider the problem of ensuring security in WMNs, introduce the IEEE 802.11s draft standard, and discuss the open security threats faced at the network and data-link layers.

ARSA: An Attack-Resilient Security Architecture for Multihop Wireless Mesh Networks

Multihop wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are finding ever-growing acceptance as a viable and effective solution to ubiquitous broadband Internet access. This paper addresses the security of WMNs, which is a key impediment to wide-scale deployment of WMNs, but thus far receives little attention. We first thoroughly identify the unique security requirements of WMNs for the first time in the literature. We then propose ARSA, an attack-resilient security architecture for WMNs. In contrast to a conventional cellular-like solution, ARSA eliminates the need for establishing bilateral roaming agreements and having real-time interactions between potentially numerous WMN operators. With ARSA in place, each user is no longer bound to any specific network operator, as he or she ought to do in current cellular networks. Instead, he or she acquires a universal pass from a third-party broker whereby to realize seamless roaming across WMN domains administrated by different operators. ARSA supports efficient mutual authentication and key agreement both between a user and a serving WMN domain and between users served by the same WMN domain. In addition, ARSA is designed to be resilient to a wide range of attacks. We also discuss other important issues such as incontestable billing