Practical privacy and security for opportunistic networks

When in physical proximity, data can be directly exchanged between the mobile devices people carry — for example over Bluetooth. If people cooperate to store, carry and forward messages on one another’s behalf, then an opportunistic network may be formed, independent of any fixed infrastructure. To enable performant routing within opportunistic networks, use of social network information has been proposed for social network routing protocols. But the decentralised and cooperative nature of the networks can however expose users of such protocols to privacy and security threats, which may in turn discourage participation in the network. In this thesis, we examine how to mitigate privacy and security threats in opportunistic networks while maintaining network performance. We first demonstrate that privacy-aware routing protocols are required in order to maintain network performance while respecting users’ privacy preferences. We then demonstrate novel social network routing protocols that mitigate specific threats to privacy and security while maintaining network performance.