The Quest for mobility models to analyse security in mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile Ad Hoc networks are subject to some unique security issues that could delay their diffusion. Several solutions have already been proposed to enforce specific security properties. However, mobility pattern nodes obey to can, on one hand, severely affect the quality of the security solutions that have been tested over "synthesized" mobility pattern. On the other hand, specific mobility patterns could be leveraged to design specific protocols that could outperform existing solutions. In this work, we investigate the influence of a realistic mobility scenario over a benchmark mobility model (Random Waypoint Mobility Model), using as underlying protocol a recent solution introduced for the detection of compromised nodes. Extensive simulations show the quality of the underlying protocol. However, the main contribution is to show the relevance of the mobility model over the achieved performances, stressing out that in mobile ad-hoc networks the quality of the solution provided is satisfactory only when it can be adapted to the nodes underlying mobility model. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.