Cross Layer versus Single Layer Approaches for Intrusion Detection in MANETs

Because of the inherent characteristics of MANET, such as distributed control and the lack of infrastructure, security threats exist almost in all layers of the network stack. This makes the design of intrusion detection systems for MANETS extremely hard. This work focuses primarily on studying the ability of detection of routing attacks in MANETS using various IDS schemes. We illustrate the inadequacy of conventional protocol-specific detection strategies using practical simulated experiments. Furthermore, we study the potential of a cross-layer IDS to overcome the problems associated with the design of MANET IDS. The strengths and weaknesses of single layer and cross layer approaches are examined using simulation-based experiments. The experimental results clearly show the supremacy of the cross-layer approach over single-layer (protocol-specific) approaches for MANETs.