A Secure Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks, which do not rely on infrastructure such as access points or base stations, can be deployed rapidly and inexpensively even in situations with geographical or time constraints. Ad hoc networks have attractive applications in both military and disaster situations and also in commercial uses like sensor networks or conferencing. However, the nature of ad hoc networks makes them vulnerable to attacks, especially in the routing protocol. How to protect an ad hoc routing protocol is an important research topic. In this paper, we present an on-demand secure routing protocol for ad hoc networks based on a distributed authentication mechanism. The protocol makes use of recommendation and trust evaluation to establish a trust relationship between network entities and uses feedback to adjust it. The protocol does not need the support of a trusted third party and can discover multiple routes between two nodes.