GPSIH: A generic IP-based scheme for identity hiding in MANETs

Securing communication in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) is a challenging task due to their mobility nature and the lack of central administration. These features make MANETs more vulnerable to several attacks like identity spoofing and traffic analysis which leads to identity disclosure. Many contributions suggest using anonymous routing protocols to protect identity. However, these solutions are limited on certain routing protocols and can be applied on network layer only. In this paper, a lightweight generic scheme for protecting identity has been proposed. The proposed scheme is based on applying XOR and DES encryption techniques. The main contribution of this scheme is the possibility of applying it on network layer regardless of the applied routing protocol. It can be also integrated easily to lower network layers like MAC layer and the higher layers as well. On the other hand, it can overcome the drawbacks which exist in previous proposals like pair-wise keys and complex computations. The simulation studies are carried out to justify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme considering the network scale and different network services used.