Security in ad hoc networks

In wirelesss ad hoc networks basic network operations are carried out through the cooperation of all available nodes. Due to the inherent lack of a managed infrastructure the nodes of an ad hoc network cannot be considered as trustworthy as in a dedicated infrastructure. Wireless ad hoc networks are thus vulnerable to various exposures threatening the basic network operations like routing and packet forwarding. This paper presents a survey of current research activities dealing with routing security, cooperation enforcement and key management in wireless ad hoc networks. Existing solutions seem to only partially address the threats and fall short of providing a comprehensive answer. Wireless security mechanisms in layer 2 that are often considered as part of the solution domain do not meet the specific requirements of wireless ad hoc networks.