Multipath routing based secure data transmission in ad hoc networks

The specific characteristics of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) make cooperation among all nodes and secure transmission important issues in its research. Misbehaving nodes with different intentions and capabilities would conduct various types of misbehavior in the networks. In this paper, we present and evaluate a scheme, in which multipath routing combined with feedback mechanism are used to tackle misbehaviors on data delivery formed by one or more misbehaving nodes in an ad hoc network. Data and control packets are transmitted through two node-disjoint paths. The source is notified of suspected misconduct of intermediate nodes through feedback mechanism. A simple derivation of this scheme is also discussed. The proposed scheme and the derivation are compared with the single path routing protocol DSR by means of simulation implemented at normal and adverse scenarios. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme and the derivation provide considerable protection in ad hoc networks at the expense of moderate overhead introduced by multipath routing. In a network with up to 40% misbehaving nodes, the proposed scheme and the derivation result in around 17% in data receive rate over the single path DSR.