Security of Emergent Properties in Ad-Hoc Networks

The notion of ad-hoc networking refers to the spontaneous formation of a network of computing nodes without reliance on a specific infrastructure. Typical ad-hoc networks consist of mobile nodes — ranging from laptops and pocket PCs to miniature sensor devices — with widely different computation and communication capabilities. Node mobility may be limited to deployment, as in the case of some sensor networks, or may continue throughout the lifetime of the network, as is the case in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). Ad-hoc networks may also be formed by application-level software agents executing on top of a fixed communication infrastructure. In such networks, node mobility can take the guise of software-agent migration among different hosts, or even of autonomous peers (e.g., principals, domains) joining or leaving peer-to-peer (P2P) networks formed without the benefit of a separate, fixed collaboration infrastructure.