Network security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Network security - Research Paper Example This study proposes a number of ad hoc network protocols that will operate during on-demand basis or situations because on-demand protocols are known to have faster reaction and lower overhead compared to other routing protocols considering proactive mechanisms. Recently, there have been many developments as concerns mounting secure routing protocols for ad hoc networks incorporating a significant number of on-demand secure routing protocols to shield a number of probable attacks. In this study, a new attack that causes denial of service when exposed to all the previous on-demand network protocols is presented; it is referred to as rushing attack. Ad hoc network protocols like AODV and DSR with all security protocols imposed on them can’t discover routes which are longer than 2 hops when subjected to this attack. This is a serious attack because it can be propagated by even relatively very weak attackers. This study pays close attention to the setbacks that previous protocols had hence failing to counter this grave attack and come up with a RAP (Rushing Attack Prevention) which is a standard protection against on-demand protocols rushing attack. This protection provides a provable security feature to weak and even the stronger rushing attackers at no cost provided the underlying protocol does not fail to identify the working route. Topic description Nowadays the WSNs or Wireless sensor networks is gaining a global interest of its usage of minimal power radio skills and microelectronic systems. Its Sensor nodes are able to use batteries as a major source of power as well as harness energy from the environment as the case of solar panels. However the wireless sensor network architecture for WSN like any other wireless technology, it is subjected to a number of security attacks because it uses broadcast way of a transmission channel. A number of limitations in including security in WSN are prevalent e.g. : communication, storage limitations, processing capa bilities and computation, therefore, to plan a security protocol one has to understand all these challenges if acceptable performance is to be achieved (C?ayirci and Rong 187-202). This study will therefore, elaborate certain kinds of attacks over the ad hoc and wireless sensor networks as well as doing security analysis of the main routing protocols in these networks as pertains security goals and design. Ad hoc network can be described as a group of mobile nodes or computers that collaborate with each other by forwarding packets to each other; this enables them to extend their limited communication range for each computer’s wireless network interface. This study shall produce a number of established protocols in ad hoc networks. These networks are mostly preferred in situations where the communicating computers are mobile and wired network use is not economical or generally not present. These nodes may run applications from un-trusted sources and therefore a need of a secur e routing protocol. Secure routing protocols shouldn’t only be implemented only because of known attackers but even for the unforeseen ones because it will provide resilience to misconfigured computers. Routing tables for misconfigured nodes poses a