Lattice based secure data transmission in MANETs

Wireless communication adapters in mobile nodes form an ad hoc network without the need for any fundamental network infrastructure. Nodes in MANETs use radio signals with a finite range to communicate making it possible for any intermediate node to intercept the communication. Also the frequently changing topology, with high susceptibility to physical compromise along with the node´s limitations in terms of energy resource, storage device and CPU form a tremendous challenge in providing security to MANETs. Unlike wired networks, there is no central infrastructure, which paves way for new challenges as services provided by central entities is now to be ensured by the mobile nodes in the network itself. As a result, there is no definitive form of defense and a comprehensive security solution should encompass avoidance, detection and reaction along with sought-after network performances. This paper focuses on the prevention/proactive approach of securing MANETs using NTRU (N^th degree truncated polynomial ring), to secure end-to-end communication through data encryption during data transmission. NTRU is Lattice-based cryptography, which is known to be resistant to quantum attacks. We assume a clustered MANET environment i.e. the mobile nodes have an efficient cluster-based routing algorithm deployed which gives us the list of clusters available in the environment along with its cluster heads and competent routing between them. The proposed technique provides data encryption using NTRU between cluster heads.