Cluster Based Security Architecture in Wireless Ad-hoc Networks: an Overview

Mobile ad hoc networks are growing in popularity due to the explosive growth of modern devices with wireless capability such as laptop, mobile phones, PDA, etc., makes the application more challenging. The mobile nodes are vulnerable to security attacks. Providing security and anonymity to users are critical in wireless ad hoc networks. Ad hoc networks have lots of applications; however, a vital problem concerning their security aspects must be solved in order to realize these applications. The dynamic and cooperative nature of ad hoc networks present challenges in securing these networks. There are recent research efforts in securing ad hoc networks. Amongst security approaches, there are threshold cryptography, certification authority, reputation and authentication. In this paper we introduce and survey these approaches. The approaches taken in this paper could be applied to the analyses of some other security methods for mobile ad hoc networks proposed in the literature.