A study of different types of attacks on multicast in mobile ad hoc networks

We present a simulation-based study of the impacts of different types of attacks on mesh-based multicast in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). We consider the most common types of attacks, namely rushing attack, blackhole attack, neighbor attack and jellyfish attack. Specifically, we study how the number of attackers and their positions affect the performance metrics of a multicast session such as packet delivery ratio, throughput, end-to-end delay, and delay jitter. We also examine rushing attackers' success rates of invading into the routing mesh when the number of attackers and their positions vary. The results enable us to suggest measures to minimize the impacts of the above types of attacks on multicast in MANETs. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.