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SPREAD: Improving network security by multipath routing in mobile ad hoc networks

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Abstract

We propose and investigate the SPREAD scheme as a complementary mechanism to enhance secure data delivery in a mobile ad hoc network. The basic idea is to transform a secret message into multiple shares, and then deliver the shares via multiple paths to the destination so that even if a certain number of message shares are compromised, the secret message as a whole is not compromised. We present the overall system architecture and discuss three major design issues: the mathematical model for the generation and reconstruction of the secret message shares, the optimal allocation of the message shares onto multiple paths in terms of security, and the multipath discovery techniques in a mobile ad hoc network. Our extensive simulation results justify the feasibility and the effectiveness of the SPREAD approach.

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Notes

  1. Note that such path security information, p i , if made available, as we will discuss in the following section, is helpful in optimizing the secure path finding procedure. However, the unavailability or inaccuracy of such information does not diminish the effectiveness of SPREAD. In general, security can be improved by even blindly (e.g., assuming all the paths equally secure) spreading the traffic.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, 01609, USA

    Wenjing Lou

  2. Scalable Network Technologies, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, USA

    Wei Liu

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Yanchao Zhang

  4. Wireless Networks Laboratory (WINET), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Yuguang Fang

Authors
  1. Wenjing Lou
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  2. Wei Liu
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  3. Yanchao Zhang
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  4. Yuguang Fang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuguang Fang.

Additional information

This work was supported in part by the US Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award under grant N000140210464 and the US National Science Foundation under grants CNS-0626881, CNS-0626601 and ANI-0093241 (CAREER Award).

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Lou, W., Liu, W., Zhang, Y. et al. SPREAD: Improving network security by multipath routing in mobile ad hoc networks. Wireless Netw 15, 279–294 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-007-0039-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-007-0039-4

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