Cross-Layer Designs for Mitigating Range Attacks in Ad Hoc Networks

This paper analyzes application level performance during a range attack in ad hoc networks. This new denial of service (DoS) attack is based on periodical changes in the transmission range of a wireless node. It is very difficult to detect this attack, because it is perfectly normal for the transmission range to vary. The main contribution of this paper is to present two cross-layer designs for mitigating the range attack. The research methodology is based on using the ns2 network simulator. Nodes are downloading web pages from a server node in a small simulated ad hoc network, and the complete transmission time for each download is measured. According to the simulation results, the proposed mitigation mechanisms can even double the amount of transmissions fulfilling a specific requirement for maximum delay during a range attack.