A Self-secure Routing Protocol for Large Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Securing mobile ad hoc networks is a nowadays emerging research topic. In this paper, we propose a self-secure routing protocol that is primarily based on public-key certificates which are provided locally and flexibly. Specifically, by taking self-securing approach, the proposed protocol makes use of a localized trust model which allows users to get certificates and to perform authentication without requirement of any on-line trusted third party. Compared to other securing routing protocols, our solution eliminates the unrealistic assumption about the availability of on-line trusted authorities or certificate repositories, thus, it can take advantage of public-key technology to prevent many types of attack from malicious nodes. Moreover, in the public-key distribution scheme, a solution for reducing overhead is proposed that makes our protocol adaptable to large mobile ad hoc networks.