A Dynamic Cooperative Monitor Node Selection Algorithm in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is developed as an emerging key solution for wireless broadband connectivity through a flexible and cost-effective way. However, due to the lack of a physical line of defense, the security in such a network is a big concern. Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is considered as one of the most effective security mechanisms in WMN. Traditionally, IDS is operated on the monitor nodes that cooperatively identify and assess intrusions by analyzing their collected network data. Therefore, most IDS mechanisms need to choose a large number of monitor nodes for good rapidity and accuracy, which increases overhead and degrades network performance. In this paper, we propose a dynamic cooperative monitor node selection scheme based on social network analysis to solve the above issue. In the scheme, we choose the monitor nodes according to their influence in the network, which is evaluated by the relationship among the nodes and the analysis of mutual information. Then, the nodes with similar information are divided into the same monitor area. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can effectively reduce network cost compared with the traditional node section schemes.