Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Securing the tactical environment resources and access to information play a crucial role in network centric war front in any country. The objective is to demonstrate solutions (on a test-bed) to overcome some of the challenges in securing Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET). More specifically it is concerned with securing a MANET using the routing protocol Secure Ad hoc On demand Distance Vector (SAODV). Methods: For protecting data that transverses the network following the route discovery, it provides a solution using lightweight symmetric cryptographic algorithms such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Findings: Our results show that there with minimal overhead, the route discovery process in an on-demand ad hoc routing protocol can be secured. Our experimental scenarios illustrate that the nodes in an ad hoc network are able to successfully exchange data messages with other nodes in a secure manner. Application/Improvements: This ensures confidentiality services for routing and data messages using AES. In addition, integrity of data is also ensured by appending the hash of the message by the source node. Further, the neighbors are continuously monitored and before they fall out of range, and any critical files present in these nodes are replicated in the central node so that data availability is ensured at all times. A graphic user interface was designed to facilitate experiments in this ad hoc testbed using Python script.

Keywords: Adhoc Testbed, Key Exchange, MANET, SAODV, Secure Routing