Security on MANETs using block coding

Security is a challenging task in Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) due to its dynamic network topology. Since MANETs do not have any centralized coordination, the distribution of keys between two nodes becomes an issue. In this paper, we provide security on MANETs without using key distribution schemes between the nodes. Our approach uses linear block coding to generate the security code vector at source node that facilitates efficient matching of code words for identifying the malicious nodes in the network. When a source node is ready for data transmission, a security code vector is appended to the packet header. Then, the complete message block, consisting of both data bits and security block, is forwarded to the next node. The data is transmitted to the next node only if code vector bits of current node and source node matches. For this purpose, a separate block called security block is reserved in the packet header. Our approach based on linear block coding also saves the energy, because of less computational analysis when compared with the existing approaches. We validate our approach through simulations.