On the Security Vulnerabilities in Mobile Adhoc Networks

Abstract

In recent years mobile adhoc networks (MANETs) have been a very active research area mainly because of the typical nature of this environment and new challenges emerging thereof. The recent popularity of wireless devices is the driving force behind the research activities in this area. In addition to several other issues, security is one major challenge requiring appropriate solutions for this environment. There has been extensive research on the security issues in wired network environments, but those solutions are difficult to implement in the wireless environment and even more difficult in the wireless mobile adhoc environment. Some of the reasons include lack of central infrastructure and reliance on the participating users for relaying and routing of the messages, mobility of the nodes causing frequent changes in the network layout and limited memory, computational and battery power.