Ad Hoc Network Routing Protocol Security Analysis Methods

The preexistence of mobile Ad Hoc network is packet radio network. The study of packet radio network was from the requirement of military communication, which has been nearly twenty years. The IEEE802.11 standard committee that was built in 1991 used "Mobile Ad Hoc Network" to describe the kind of peer-to-peer mobile radio network. The network can be applied to military, sensor network, dealing with emergency, personal local area network and wired accessed system. However, mobile Ad Hoc network has not been applied widely, since many problems have not been solved, especially the security. If the network can not meet strict secure requirement the application would not been processed. In mobile Ad Hoc network the security is very important because it is very easily to be attacked. At present the study of mobile Ad Hoc network is focused on the design of routing protocols, but the security of routing protocols was paid little attention on. In this paper we studied the security of routing protocols and presented a method to evaluate the security of routing protocols.The key problem is how to evaluate the security of routing protocols in the paper. Firstly, we studied what is the security of routing protocols, what is the course that routing protocols run and how to describe the two "what" in formalization. Secondly, we applied the method to analyze the secure routing protocols which have been published. We found some flaws of routing protocols, which can verify the method is valid. Finally, we gave some design principles of routing protocols and designed a kind of secure routing protocol - SOSR. Furthermore, SOSR was simulated in NS-2. The main study results are as follows:1. The detail description of security for Ad Hoc secure routing protocol was given in the paper according to the application requirement of MANET. The secure property was divided into three aspects, five species. Those were authenticity and encryption before being attacked, recognizability and isolatism while being attacked, recoverability after being attacked. The description presented secure properties whichsecure routing protocols should be possess. It can express the secure goal which secure routing protocols of Ad Hoc should meet.2. The criterion in the run of routing protocols was given. It summarized what was the function of routing protocols and what was the process in the run of routing protocols. It detached four phases from the routing process and described each phase in detail. This was the base of formalization.3. Research the methods of formalization for secure routing protocol. Based on three methods of BAN logic, Stand space and Spi-calculus to analyze the security of Ad Hoc routing protocols firstly. Considered the character of mobile Ad Hoc network, the three methods were improved to judge the security. The three methods have not only virtue but also shortcoming, which can reinforce each other and be independent.4 Some flaws of Ad Hoc secure routing protocols were found when we used the three methods to analyze some Ad Hoc routing protocols which have been published.5 The design criterion of secure routing protocols was given and a kind of secure routing protocol - SOSR was designed in the paper. Based on the problems which we found in the analysis of security for Ad Hoc routing protocols, some key issues were given. Furthermore, SOSR was simulated in NS-2.