A blockchain-based secure routing protocol for opportunistic networks

Opportunistic Delay Tolerant Networks also referred to as Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) are composed of wireless hosts opportunistically communicating with each other. These networks are designed to operate without the guaranteed existence of a path between the sender and the receiver. Inadequate data security in OppNets has been seriously detrimental to its adoption. This paper explores a secure and decentralized approach that uses the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and propose a blockchain-based secure routing protocol (called BDRP). In this work, we design an integrated routing protocol that uses Proof-of-Work (PoW) for routing and demonstrates how immutability can be applied to the OppNet paradigm. Blockchain promises transparent, distributed, and tamper-resistant ledger and secure systems that may provide secure routing solutions for OppNets. We aim to study how effectively can Proof-of-Work (PoW) scale-up in OppNets as a consensus mechanism is the most resource and time-intensive component of a blockchain. The work even displays the ways this routing method prevents against attacks such as eavesdropping, masquerading, wormhole, blackhole, and fabrication. The simulation results, along with the theoretical justification, show how the proposed BDRP fares among the existing security policies are used in opportunistic networks.