Hybrid Strategy of Anti-Jamming for MANET

Introduction

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are, a.k.a. wireless adhoc networks or adhoc wireless networks, mobile ad hoc networks which does not require any infrastructure support for carrying data packets between two nodes. They are dynamically constructed by autonomous mobile nodes with no fixed infrastructure or centralized administration (Abdelaziz et al., 2014; Mirza & Bakshi, 2018). MANETs are characterized (Mirza & Bakshi, 2018, p.18) as “self-organizing and adaptive networks that can be formed and deformed on the-fly without the need of any centralized administration.” This characteristic makes the use of MANETs attractive in a wide range of application areas in business and military areas, as well as in the emerging sensor networks technology (Mirza & Bakshi, 2018). In MANET architecture every node within each other’s radio range communicates directly via wireless link functioning as a router or as an end host. The nodes or devices in the MANET architecture are in general autonomous.

Unlike the wired networks, mobile ad hoc networks’ flexibility provided by their dynamic infrastructure has made the security issue as a primary concern in order to provide protected communication between mobile nodes. Mobile ad hoc networks are vulnerable to being attached than the wired network and therefore they require more security to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data flowing through the network. ad hoc mobile networks are confronted with many security attacks as presented by (Abdelaziz et al., 2014).

Abdelaziz et al. (2014, p.187) presents a detailed classification of MANET security attacks. They classified it into two broad categories: passive attacks and active attacks. Jamming attacks, focus of our paper, occurs only at three layers under “malicious attacks” in figure 1: physical layer (inference and jamming), MAC layer, and transport layers (acknowledgment attacks).

Figure 1.

classification of security attacks. Source: (Abdelaziz et al., 2014, p.187)

These attacks include interference attacks, which are any disruption or interference with the physical transmission and reception of wireless signals. This can be intentional, in the form of radio interference, unintentional in the event of a collision and interference on the receiver, or as part of an attack. In a jamming attack, the goal of the jammers is to disrupt the communication between the transmitter and the receiver using minimal power. This attack is catastrophic because the jammer exploits the open and shared nature of the wireless medium to disrupt communications by reducing the signal to noise ratio (SNR). An attacker with enormous resources can continuously scramble the spectrum band to disrupt in-band communication. Additionally, an attacker can decide to scramble the band intermittently, thus forcing the receiving node to drop packets due to corruption. The scrambling device often used to carry out this attack selects a common channel that is currently occupied by the nodes to prevent successful transmission of data. The main purpose of the scrambling device is to occupy the channel and ensure that the network is not available to the legitimate nodes, while these nodes, on the other hand, try to maximize the use of the network (Grover et al., 2014).

In MANET, it is difficult to identify jamming attacks, which can increase security threats. this study aims to propose a new anti-jamming strategy for MANET networks. The objectives are as follows:

• 1.

  To propose an approach of detection of attack by jamming based on a new security strategy which is effective.

• 2.

  Estimate the effectiveness and efficiency of jammers.

• 3.

  Validate MANET security metrics.