Secure communication for multi-path ad-hoc network

A mobile ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that are capable of communicating with each other without the use of network infrastructure or any centralized administration. One main challenge in the design of these networks in their vulnerability to security attacks. In this paper, the security challenges in ad hoc networks are analyzed and secure communication is explored using the characteristics provided in an ad hoc network. In particular, the inherent redundancy in an ad hoc network is used to exchange secret keys. A secure DSR protocol is proposed in which the DSR [1] routing protocol is enhanced with a security mechanism to send data in an encrypted format. The secret keys are exchanged without any centralized party or key management scheme. Using the DSR routing protocol and the Diffie-Hellman [2] key exchange method, secure communication is obtained with less effort, without any performance degradation.