Effect of Black hole Attack on Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are obtaining popularity today, as it offers wireless connectivity to the users irrespective of their geographical position. Such networks are composed of a set of stations or nodes that communicating through wireless channels, without any fixed backbone support in which different nodes are allowed to join or leave the network at any time. MANETs are generally more vulnerable to information and physical security threats than wired networks, so security is a vital requirement in MANETs to provide secured communication between mobile nodes. Most of the routing protocols rely on the cooperation among the nodes for secure transmission due to lack of centralized administration. There is no general algorithm for security of principle routing protocols like AODV against various attacks. One of the most common attacks against routing in MANETs is the Black Hole attack. A black hole is a malicious node that uses the routing protocol to advertise itself as having the shortest path to the node whose packets it wants to intercept. In this paper, we examine the effect of blackhole node in adhoc networks using simulator tool NS2.