Multiobjective Design of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks: Security, Real-Time and Lifetime

This paper deals with the tradeoffs between security, real-time and lifetime performance. Due to the multihop nature of communication wireless ad hoc networks are very vulnerable to attacks. Malicious nodes included in a routing path may misbehave and organize attacks such as black holes. Scaling the number of hops for a packet delivery we trade off energy efficiency against security and real-time communication. To study the multihop communication we propose a hierarchical communication model. The REWARD (receive, watch, redirect) algorithm for secure routing is employed as a main example for corrective actions. Symmetrical routing is a distinguish feature of protocols such as REWARD and we outline the threshold of conflict between power-efficient partitioning of communication links and symmetrical routing. Keywords— ad hoc networks, low-power routing, multihop communication, secure routing.