Skip to main content
Log in

A shared secret-based algorithm for securing the OLSR routing protocol

  • Published:
Telecommunication Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The strongest feature of ad hoc networks is its capability to be rapidly deployed anywhere and anytime without relying on a pre-existing infrastructure. From there, ad hoc networks offer the advantages to be auto-organized, ubiquitous, dynamic and completely autonomous. As a counter part, securing them becomes a more difficult task, especially because of the absence of centralized entities in the network. Inevitably, the security problem presents currently a hot topic raising more and more challenges within industrials and researchers, and many interesting securing solutions were meanwhile proposed, omitting however to suit to ad hoc networks characteristics and therefore disadvantaging them. In this paper, we propose a securing scheme for the OLSR routing protocol based on the secret sharing idea. We initially expose the general characteristics and the security problems related to ad hoc routing protocols. We then address the security requirements of ad hoc routing protocols and the security requirements we focus on. Finally, we define our completely and distributed securing algorithm based on threshold cryptography. A primary main conception objective being to suit as much as possible to ad hoc networks characteristics by avoiding as much as possible assumptions contradictory with the auto-organized and dynamic nature of ad hoc networks. Simulation results depict the additional delay due to security enhancements. Results show that this delay stills suitable to OLSR routing specifications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Clausen T., Jacquet P., Laouati A., Minet P., Muhltahler P., Qayyum A. and Viennot L., Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (OLSR), IETF RFC 3626, 2003.

  2. Ogier R., Templin F. and Lewis M., Topology Dissemination Based on Reverse-Path Forwarding (TBRPF), IETF RFC 3684, February 2004.

  3. Perkins C.E., and Royer E.M., Ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing (AODV), IETF RFC 3561, 2003.

  4. D.B. Johnson, D.A. Maltz, and Y.C. Hu, The Dynamic Source Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (DSR), IETF Draft 10, 2004.

  5. K. Sanzgiri, B. Dahill, B.N. Levine, C. Shields and E.M. Belding-Royer, A Secure Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks, The10thIEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'02), Paris, France, November 12–15, 2002.

  6. D. Dhillon, T.S. Randhawa, M. Wang and L. Lamont, Implementing a Fully Distributed Certificate Authority in an OLSR MANET, IEEE Wireless Communication and Networking Conference, Atlanta, USA, March 2004.

  7. L. Zhou and Z.J. Haas, Securing Ad Hoc Networks, IEEE Networks Magazine, 13(6) (1999) 24–30.

    Google Scholar 

  8. J. Kong, P. Zerfos, H. Luo, S. Lu and L. Zhang, Providing Robust and Ubiquitous Security Support for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, The 9thInternational Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'01), Riverside, California, USA, November 11–14, 2001.

  9. H. Luo, P. Zerfos, J. Kong, S. Lu, and L. Zhang, Self-securing Ad Hoc Wireless Networks, The Seventh International Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC'02), Taormina, Italy, July 1–4, 2002.

  10. P. Papadimitratos, and Z.J. Haas, Secure routing for mobile ad hoc networks, Communication Networks and Distributed Systems Modeling and Simulation Conference (CNDS 2002), San Antonio, Texas, USA, January 27–31, 2002.

  11. http://www.olsr.org

  12. A. Fourati, H. Badis, and K. Al Agha, Security Vulnerabilities Analysis of the OLSR Routing Protocol, 12thInternational Conference on Telecommunications, ICT 2005, Cape Town, South Africa, May 3–6, 2005.

  13. J. Macker, and S. Corson, Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET): Routing Protocol Performance Issues and Evaluation Considerations, RFC 2501, IETF Network Working Group, 1999.

  14. Y. Huang, and W. Lee, A Cooperative Intrusion Detection System for Ad Hoc Networks, The ACM Workshop on Security of Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks (SASN '03), Fairfax VA, October 2003.

  15. L. Buttayan, and J.P. Hubaux, Report on Working Session on Security in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, ACM SIGMOBILE Mobile Computing and Communications Reviews, 6(4) (2002).

  16. B. Awerbuch, R. Curtmola, D. Holmer, C. Nita-Rotaru, and H. Rubens, Mitigating Byzantine Attacks in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks, Technical Report Version 1, March 2004.

  17. Y. Zhang, and W. Lee, Intrusion Detection in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, The 6th International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (Mobicom 2000), Boston, USA, August 6–11, 2000.

  18. A. Shamir, How to Share a Secret, Communications of the ACM, 22 (1979) 612–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. A. Khalili, J. Katz, and W.A. Arbaugh, Toward Secure Key Distribution in Truly Ad-Hoc Networks, The 2003 Symposium on Applications and the Internet Workshops (SAINT-w'03), Orlando, Florida, USA, January 2003.

  20. A. Mukherjee, H. Deng, and D.P. Agrawal, Distributed Pairwise Key Generation Using Shared Polynomials For Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, IFIP TC6 / WG6.8 Conference on Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks (MWCN 2004), Paris, France, (2004) 215–226.

  21. A. Fourati, and K. Al Agha, A completely distributed and auto-organized algorithm securing the OLSR routing protocol, IFIP Open Conference on Metropolitan Area Networks, IFIP MAN conference, HCMC, Viet Nam, April 11–13, 2005.

  22. R. Makhuntot, and A. Phonphoem, Security Enhancement of the Private Key Distribution method in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, The 7thNational Computer Science and Engineering Conference (NCSEC 2003), Burapha University, (2003) 282–286.

  23. Z. Yan, P. Zhang, and T. Virtanen, Trust Evaluation Based Security Solution in Ad Hoc Networks, The Seventh Nordic Workshop on Secure IT Systems, October 2003, Gjøvik, Norway.

  24. H. Badis, and K. Al Agha, Scalabale model for the simulation of OLSR and Fast-OLSR protocols, IFIP Med-Hoc-Net, Tunisia, June 2003.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alia Fourati.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fourati, A., Agha, K.A. A shared secret-based algorithm for securing the OLSR routing protocol. Telecommun Syst 31, 213–226 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-006-6521-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-006-6521-y

Keywords

Navigation