Unlike cellular networks whose infrastructure includes base stations or access points, routers and switches that are fixed and wired together, MANETs are entirely infrastructure-less and the mobile nodes act as wireless routers. Susceptibility of wireless medium to attacks ranging from passive eaves dropping to active interference, coupled with a dynamic network topology in which every mobile node is receptive to capture and compromise, results in vulnerabilities that do not exist in wired networks, and renders traditional security measures such as firewalls and encryption-based systems as ineffective. Unlike wired networks, attacks on a MANET can come from any direction and target any node. Every node in the network thus must be individually prepared. As attacks by a compromised node from within the network are much harder to detect, mobile nodes must be prepared to operate in a mode that trusts no peer. We are investigating key distribution, distributed authentication mechanisms and encryption as well as intrusion detection techniques. A viable intrusion detection approach to ensure protection from attacks on MANET routing protocols is being built on a Linux platform.

Papers:

• M. Wang, L. Lamont, P Mason, M. Gorlatova, "An Effective Intrusion Detection Approach for OLSR MANET Protocol", First Workshop on Secure Network Protocols (NPSec), Boston, Massachusetts, USA, November 6, 2005.
  
  
• D. Dhillon, T. Randhawa, M. Wang, L. Lamont, "Implementing a Fully Distributed Certificate Authority in an OLSR MANET", WCNC 2004 IEEE Wireless Communication and Networking Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, March 21-25, 2004.