A Secure Intra-domain Routing Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) is a rapidly progressing area of research, promising future broadband anywhere and anytime network access. WMN is anticipated to resolve the limitations of Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET). Secure routing in WMN still remains as an open research problem due to its special characteristics such as dedicated backbone network with static/mobile mesh clients. This paper proposes a framework that addresses: i) the application of Identity Based Cryptography (IBC) to WMN, for efficient key management and for the distribution of pair-wise shared keys among the authenticated clients; and, ii) the design of a light weight secure routing protocol for intra-domain WMN routing which protects all the fields of the routing packet against various security attacks. Security analysis shows that the proposed protocol meets the targeted security goals. Performance analysis carried out using OPNET simulation studies show that the proposed protocol adds minimal delay and communication overhead to provide security.