Standardization areas for securing ad hoc networks

The unique end-to-end communication capability provided by the Internet protocol (IP) has resulted in ad hoc networks increasingly relying on the IP protocol stack. The same seamless connectivity afforded by IP also renders it easy for malicious users to launch various attacks on ad hoc networks. While numerous approaches have been proposed for addressing security issues, not much standardization work has emerged. Standardization of security mechanisms is important if multi-vendor ad hoc devices are expected to inter-operate securely on a large scale. We present the technical areas where standardization would be feasible, discuss the need for such standardization, and survey the most promising approaches proposed in the literature for each area.