Abstract
Routing in wireless ad-hoc networks is a challenging problem since wireless nodes are not necessarily known and they are vulnerable to compromise. The number of intermediate hops is not the only important factor that affects the routing; the intermediate hops themselves are also important.
In this paper, we present a risk-based routing protocol for wireless ad-hoc networks. This routing protocol takes care of the risk level of using nodes as intermediate hops in addition to the number or hops. It is an adjustable protocol which can be easily adjusted to either increase or decrease how important the risk levels are. Our scheme is flexible and can be adapted, with modifications, to almost any routing protocol. We show how we can take advantage of this flexibility, using our scheme in two famous secure routing protocols: ARAN (Authenticated Routing for Ad hoc Networks), and Ariadne (a secure on-demand routing protocol for ad-hoc networks).
The analysis shows that this protocol not only increases resilience against attacks but also effectively increases the performance of the networks.