1Jaya Prakash Narayan College of Engineering, Mahaboobnagar, A.P. - 509002.
2SIT, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kukatpally, Hyderabad-500085.
3CIS, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad-500046.
Ad-hoc networks do not have a specific infrastructure. Users of such a network form a temporary network, which requires no centralized administration. When the users get mobile, the ad-hoc network they had formed starts changing its topology dynamically. In such a dynamically changing topology, we need all mobile nodes to have the ability of routing. In the wireless medium, because of radio transmission range limitations, communication between two remote hosts has to be established through a multi-hop link. To accomplish this task, various routing protocols capable of adapting to changing network topologies have been proposed. Those routing protocols should minimize the usage of valuable resources such as bandwidth, CPU, and memory.
The military tactical and other security-sensitive operations are still the main applications of ad hoc networks, although there is a trend to adopt ad hoc networks for commercial uses due to their unique properties. One main challenge in design of these networks is their vulnerability to security attacks. In this paper, we discuss the threats an ad hoc network faces and the security goals to be achieved.
