SL2R-HT and SL2R-LH: Securing layer-2 routing protocol for WMN

Abstract

Earlier research efforts mainly focused on securing adhoc routing mechanisms. However, recently there has also been growing research interest in studying the security of the medium access control (MAC) and its impact on network performance. The impact will be even more severe in case of multi hop wireless networks. IEEE 802.11s being a multihop technology also derives similar security concerns. It also hence needs to ensure correct route establishment mechanisms, protection of routing information, and security of packet forwarding. In this paper two new schemes have been proposed to protect the IEEE 802.11s (draft) routing protocol: HWMP which is currently defined as the default protocol. The proposed schemes have been implemented in a simulation environment and the results have been compared with the existing protocol.