SECX1055 MOBILE ADHOC NETWORKS

UNIT IV - TRANSPORT LAYER AND SECURITY PROTOCOLS

Transport Layer Protocols: Design Goals - Issue in Designing a Transport Layer Protocol -
Classification of Transport Layer Solutions - TCP over MANET.
Security Protocols: Security over MANET - Security Requirements - Issue and Challenges in Security
Provisioning - Network Security Attacks - Security Routing in MANET.

INTRODUCTION

The objectives of transport layer protocol include the setting up of an end -to-end connection, end-to-end
delivery of data packets, flow control, congestion control.

ISSUES IN DESIGNING A TRANSPORT LAYER PROTOCOL FOR AD HOC WIRELESS NETWORKS

1. Induced Traffic:

neighboring links (or paths) is referred to as induced traffic.

-dependent contention on the
channel

2. Induced throughput unfairness:

existing at the lower layer such as the n/w and MAC layers.
oughput across contending
flows

3. Separation of congestion control, reliability and flow control:

-to-end reliability, flow control and
congestion control are handled separately.
ty and flow control are end-to-end activities, whereas congestion can at times be a local activity
minimization of the additional control overhead generated by them

4. Power and Band width constraints:

source constraints including the two most important
resources:
(i) power source and
(ii) bandwidth

5. Interpretation of congestion:
ngestion as used in traditional networks is not appropriate in ad hoc
networks.
-dependent contention, hidden terminal
problem, packet collisions in the network, path breaks due to mobility of nodes, and node failure due to
drained battery can also lead to packet loss in ad hoc wireless networks

6. Completely decoupled transport layer:

-layer interaction between the transport layer and lower layers is important to adapt to the
changing network environment
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7. Dynamic topology:

and remerging of networks & high delay in reestablishment

of paths

DESIGN GOALS OF A TRANSPORT LAYER PROTOCOL FOR AD HOC WIRELESS NETWORKS

nection.

to provide both reliable and unreliable connections as per the requirements of the
application layer.

resource constraints such as battery power and buffer sizes and make efficient
use of them.

-defined cross-layer interaction framework.

uld maintain End-to-End Semantics.

CLASSIFICATION OF TRANSPORT LAYER SOLUTIONS TCP OVER

Figure: 4.1 Classification of Transport layer solutions

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TCP OVER AD HOC WIRELESS NETWORKS:

TCP is reliable, end-to-end, connection-oriented TL protocol that provides a byte stream based service.

 Congestion control.
 Flow control.
 In-order delivery of packets.
 Reliable transportation of packets.

Discussion of TCP performance in Adhoc wireless network

The major reasons behind throughput degradation that TCP faces when used in ad hoc wireless net
works are the following.

1. Misinterpretation of packet loss:

a much higher packets loss due to

2. Frequent path breaks:

-establishment time is greater than the RTO period of TCP sender, then the TCP sender
assumes congestion in the n/w retransmits lost packets and initiates congestion control algorithm. This
leads to wastage of bandwidth and battery power.

3. Effect of path length:

As path length increases, the throughput decreases.

Figure: 4.2 Variation of TCP through with path length

4. Misinterpretation of congestion window:

transmission rate acceptable to the network and the receiver.

5. Asymmetric link behavior:

as location dependent
contention, directional properties etc leading to asymmetric links.
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6. Unidirectional path:
-to-end ACK for ensuring reliability. Path break on an entirely different reverse path
can affect the performance of the network as much as a path breaks in the forward path.

7. Multipath Routing:
intern generates a
set of duplicate acknowledgement (DUPACKs),which cause additional power consumption and invocation
of congestion control.

8. Network partitioning and remerging:

Figure: 4.3 Effect of partitioning and merging network

Fig 4.3 illustrates the effect of network partitions in ad hoc wireless networks.

n B experiences
path break.

9. The use of sliding window based transmission:

ffic due to the subsequent transmission of TCP segments.

FEEDBACK BASED TCP (TCP – F)

Operation:
TCP-F, an intermediate node, upon detection of a path break, originates route failure notification
(RFN) packet. This intermediate node is called Failure point (FP).
is obtained
from TCP packets.

discards the RFN packet and uses the alternate path for forwarding further data packets, thus reducing
control overhead involved in the route reconfiguration process.
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 Stops sending any more packets to the destination.

 Cancels all timers.
 Freezes its congestion window.
 Freezes the retransmission timer.
 Sets up a route failure timer.

-establishment has been done, and then the failure point sends Route Re-
establishment Notification (RRN) packet to the sender and the TCP state is updated back to the
connected state.

Figure:4.4 Operation of TCP-F

Advantages:
 Simple feedback solution for problem arising from path breaks.
 Permits TCP congestion control mechanism to respond to congestion in the network.
Disadvantages:
 If a route to sender is not available at the FP, then additional control packets may need to be
generated for routing RFN packets.
 TCP-F has an additional state compared to traditional TCP state mechanism.
 Congestion window used after a new route is obtained may not reflect the achievable
transmission rate acceptable to the network and the TCP-F receiver.

TCP WITH EXPLICIT LINK FAILURE NOTIFICATION: (TCP-ELFN)

twork
-F
Operation:

1. By sending an ICMP Destination Unreachable (DUR) message to the sender.

(or)
2. By piggy-backing this information to the sender.

standby state.
.
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and continues to function as normal.

Advantages:
 Improves TCP performance by decoupling the path break information from the congestion
information by the use of ELFN.
 Less dependent on routing protocol & requires only link failure notification about the path break.

Disadvantages:
 When the network is temporarily partitioned, the path failure may last longer & this can lead to
the origination of periodic probe packets consuming bandwidth & power.
 Congestion window used after a new route is obtained may not reflect the achievable
transmission rate acceptable to the network and the TCP receiver.

TCP-BUS (TCP WITH BUFFERING CAPABILITY AND SEQUENCE INFORMATION)

-F and TCP-ELFN in its use of feedback information from an intermediate node on
detection of a path break. But it is more dependent on the routing protocol.
-Bus was proposed, with Associativity-Based Routing (ABR) protocol as the routing scheme. Hence it
makes use of some special messages such as LQ and REPLY for finding partial path.

Figure: 4.5 Operation of TCP bus

Operation:

explicit route disconnection notification (ERDN) message to the TCP-BuS sender.

-BuS sender stops transmission and freezes all timers and

windows as in TCP-F.
at the intermediate nodes from the TCP-BuS sender to the PN are buffered until
a new partial path from the PN to the TCP-BuS receiver is obtained by the PN.
the
TCP-BuS receiver, which is forwarded by all the downstream nodes in the path.
-BuS receiver, and the availability of such a
partial path to destination is intimated to the TCP-BuS sender through an explicit route successful
notification (ERSN) packet.TCP utilizes route reconfiguration mechanism of ABR to obtain partial path to
the destination.
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-REPLY process to obtain a new route to the TCP-BuS receiver, PN informs the
TCP-BuS sender of the new partial path using ERSN Packet.(it is sent reliably)
-BuS sender also periodically originates probe packets to check the availability of a path to the
destination.
-BuS.

Advantages:
 Performance improvement.
 Avoidance of fast retransmission due to the use of buffering, sequence numbering, and selective
acknowledgement.
 Also takes advantage of the underlying routing protocols.
Disadvantages:
 Increased dependency on the routing protocol is high and the buffering at the intermediate
nodes. The failure of intermediate nodes that buffer the packets may lead to loss of packets and
performance degradation.
 The dependency on the routing protocol may degrade its performance with order routing
protocols that do not have similar control messages as in ABR.
AD HOC TCP
 Based on feedback information received from the intermediate nodes, the TCP sender changes its state
to the
 Persist state
 Congestion control state
 Retransmission state
 When an intermediate node finds that the network is partitioned, then the TCP sender state is changed
to the persist state where it avoids unnecessary retransmissions.
 Figure shows the thin layer implementation of ATCP between the traditional TCP layer and the IP layer.
 This does not require changes in the existing TCP protocol.
 This layer is active only at the TCP sender.

Figure:4.6 ATCP thin layer and ATCP state diagram

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Major function of the ATCP Layer is that it monitors the following:

 Packet sent and received by TCP sender,
 The state of the TCP sender,
 State of the network.

1. NORMAL.
2. CONGESTED
3. LOSS
4. DISCONN
When a TCP connection is established, the ATCP sender state is in NORMAL, here ATCP does not
interfere with the operation of TCP and it remains invisible.
Advantages:
 It maintains the end to end semantics of TCP.
 It is compatible with traditional TCP.
 Improves throughput of TCP in adhoc wireless network.
Disadvantages:
 Dependency on the network layer protocol to detect the route changes and partitions.
 Addition of thin ATCP layer to TCP/IP protocol stack requires changes in the interface functions
 currently being used

Split TCP

Major issues that affect the performance of TCP over adhoc wireless network are the degradation of
throughput with increasing path length.

throughput than other sessions.

h are found to give a
higher throughput for certain link level sessions, leading to an effect known as channel capture.

 Congestion control
 End to End reliability

(called segments or zones) with a number of selected intermediate nodes (known as proxy nodes) as
terminating points of these short connections.

Figure: 4.7 Illustration of spilt TCP

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-TCP where a three segment split –TCP connection exists between

source node1 and destination node 15.
in its local buffer, and sends an
acknowledgement to the source (or the previous proxy)

the proxy node.

destination node.
ted algorithm, the intermediate nodes that receive TCP packets determine whether to
act as a proxy node or just as a simple forwarding node.

the second zone (segment), and the last zone is between node 13 and 15.

packet, & buffers the received packets. This buffered packet is forwarded to the next proxy node at a
transmission rate proportional to the arrival of LACKs from the next proxy node or destination.

Advantages:
 Improved throughput.
 Improved throughput fairness.
 Lessened impact of mobility.
Disadvantages:
 Requires modifications to TCP protocol
 End to End connection handling of traditional TCP is violated.
 The failure of proxy nodes can lead to throughput degradation

COMPARISION OF TCP SOLUTIONS FOR ADHOC WIRELESS NETWORKS

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NETWORK SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

A security protocol for ad hoc wireless networks should satisfy the following requirements

1. Confidentiality:
a) The data sent by the sender must be comprehensible only to the intended receiver.
b) Though an intruder might get hold of the data being sent, he / she must not be able to derive
any useful information out of the data.
c) One of the popular techniques used for ensuring confidentiality is data encryption.

2. Integrity:
a) The data sent by the source node should reach the destination node without being altered.
b) It should not be possible for any malicious node in the network to tamper with the data during
transmission

3. Availability:
a) The network should remain operational all the time.
b) It must be robust enough to tolerate link failures and also be capable of surviving various attacks
mounted on it.
c) It should be able to provide guaranteed services whether an authorized user requires them

4. Non-Repudiation:
a) It is a mechanism to guarantee that the sender of a message cannot later deny having sent the
message and that the recipient cannot deny having received the message.
b) Digital signatures are used for this purpose.

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN SECURITY PROVISIONING

1. Shared broadcast radio channel:

a) The radio channel used for communication in adhoc wireless networks is broadcast in nature & is
shared by all nodes within its direct transmission range.
b) Data transmitted by a node is received by all nodes within its direct transmission range. So a
malicious node could easily obtain data being transmitted in the network.
c) This problem can be minimized to a certain extent by using directional antennas.

2. Limited resource availability:

a) Resources such as bandwidth, battery power, & computational power are scarce in adhoc
wireless networks.
b) Hence it is difficult to implement complex cryptography-based security mechanisms in networks.

3. Insecure operational environment:

a) The operating environments where adhoc wireless is used may not always be secure.
b) One important application of such networks is in battlefields.

4. Physical Vulnerability:
a) Nodes in these networks are usually compact & hand-held in nature.
b) They could get damaged easily & are also vulnerable to theft.
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5. Lack of central authority:

a) In wired networks & infrastructure-based wireless networks, it would be possible to monitor the
traffic on the network through certain important central points & implement security mechanisms
at such points.
b) Since adhoc –wireless networks do not have central points; these mechanisms cannot be applied
in ad hoc wireless networks.

6. Lack of associations:
a) Since these networks are dynamic in nature, a node can join or leave the network at any point of
time.
b) If no proper authentication mechanism is used for associating nodes in a network, an intruder
would be able to join into the network quite easily & carry out his/her attacks

Figure: 4.8 Network attacks

1. Passive attack
a. It does not disrupt the operation of the network; the adversary snoops the data
exchanged in the network without altering it.
b. One way to overcome such problems is to use powerful encryption mechanisms to
encrypt the data being transmitted.
2. Active attack
a. An active attack attempts to alter or destroy the data being exchanged in the network,
thereby disrupting the normal functioning of the network.
b. They can be further classified into 2 categories:
i. External attacks, which are carried out by nodes that do not belong to the network.
They can be prevented using standard encryption techniques and firewalls.
ii. Internal attacks are from compromised nodes that are actually part of the network.

NETWORK LAYER ATTACKS

There are many types of attacks pertaining to the network layer in network protocol stack. Some of them
are as follows:

1. Wormhole attack:
a) In this attack, an attacker receives packets at one location in the network & tunnels them
(possibly selectively) to another location in the network, where the packets are resent into the
network. This tunnel between 2 colliding attackers is referred to as a wormhole.
b) If proper mechanisms are not employed to defend the network against wormhole attacks,
existing routing protocols for adhoc wireless networks may fail to find valid routes.
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2. Black hole attack:

a) In this attack, a malicious node falsely advertises good paths to destination node during path -
finding process or in route update messages.
b) The intention of malicious node could be to hinder the path-finding process or to intercept all
data packets being sent to the destination node.
3. Byzantine attack:
a) Here, a compromised intermediate note or a set of compromised intermediate nodes work in
collusion
b) Carries out attack such as creating routing loops, routing packets on non-optimal paths &
selectively dropping packets.

4. Information disclosure:
a) A compromised node may leak confidential or important information to unauthorized nodes in the
network.

5. Resource consumption attack:

a) In this attack, a malicious node tries to consume/waste resources of other nodes present in the
network.
b) The resources targeted are battery power, bandwidth & computational power, which are
c) Limitedly available in adhoc wireless networks.

6. Routing attacks:

There are several types of attacks mounted on routing protocol & they are as follows:
i. Routing table overflow:
 In this type of attack, an adversary node advertises routes to non-existent nodes, to the
authorized nodes present in the network.
 The main objective of this attack is to cause an overflow of routing tables, which would
in turn prevent the creation of entries corresponding to new routes to authorized nodes.
ii. Routing table poisoning:
 Here, the compromised nodes in the networks send fictitious routing updates or modify
genuine route update packets sent to other uncompromised nodes.
 This may result in sub-optimal routing, congestion in network or even make some parts
of network inaccessible.
iii. Packet replication:
 In this attack, an adversary node would replicate state packets.
iv. Route cache poisoning:
 Similar to routing table poisoning, an adversary can also poison the route cache to
achieve similar activities.
v. Rushing attack:
 On-demand routing protocols that use duplicate suppression during the route discovery
process are vulnerable to this attack.

SECURE ROUTING IN AD HOC WIRELESS NETWORKS

Ensuring secure communication in adhoc wireless networks include the mobility of nodes, a promiscuous
mode of operation, limited processing power & limited availability of resources such as battery power,
bandwidth & memory.
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REQUIREMENTS OF A SECURE ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR ADHOC WIRELESS NETWORKS

The fundamental requirements for a secure routing protocol for adhoc wireless networks are listed as
below:

 A secure routing protocol should be able to detect the presence of any malicious node in the
network & should avoid the participation of such nodes in the routing process.
ute discovery:
 If a route between the source & destination node exist, the routing protocol should be able to
find the route, & should also ensure the correctness of the selected route

:
 Once the network topology is known, the attacker may try to study the traffic pattern in the
network. If some of the nodes are found to be more active compared to others, the attacker may
try to mount attacks.
 This may ultimately affect the ongoing routing process. Hence, confidentiality of network
topology is important.

Stability against attacks:

 The routing protocols must be self-stable in the sense that it must be able to revert to its normal
operating state within a finite amount of time after passive or an active attack.
 Some of the security-aware routing protocols proposed for adhoc wireless networks are
discussed.

Part A Questions
1. List the types of attacks in ad hoc wireless networks.
2. What do you mean by passive attacks?
3. What do you mean by active attacks?
4. Define Denial of attack.
5. List the major types of resource consumption attacks.
6. List the major security threats that exist in ad hoc wireless networks.
7. Give the major objectives of the transport layer protocol.
8. List the issues and challenges in security provisioning of transport layer.
9. Define secure routing.
10. What are not supported by the traditional TCP for handling Adhoc network?
11. How is secure routing done on wireless channels?
12. Why secure routing protocols are needed?
13. Why does TCP not work well in ad hoc network?
14. What are the issues in designing transport layer protocol?
15. List the network security requirements.
16. List some of the network layer attacks.
17. What are the effects of induced traffic in Adhoc network?
18. Define Wormhole attack.
Part B Questions

1. Explain feedback based TCP and TCP BUS in detail.

2. Explain the issues in designing a transport layer protocol for adhoc wireless networks.
3. Why does TCP not perform well in adhoc wireless network? Explain.
4. List and brief various network and transport layer attacks in detail.
5. Explain various network and application layer security attacks in detail.
6. Discuss the effect of multiple breaks on a single path at the TCP- F sender.
7. What is the impact of the failure of proxy nodes in split- TCP?