What is Message Authentication in VANET?

MESSAGE AUTHENTICATION

In cryptography, a message authentication code (MAC) is a short 

piece of information used to authenticate a message—in other 

words, to provide integrity and authenticity assurances on the message. A message authentication code (MAC) is a cryptographic checksum on data that uses a session key to detect both accidental and intentional modifications of the data.

A MAC requires two inputs: a message and a secret key known only to the originator of the message and its intended recipient(s). This allows the recipient of the message to verify the integrity of the message and authenticate that the messege's sender has the shared secret key. If a sender doesn’t know the secret key, the hash value would then be different, which would tell the recipient that the message was not from the original sender. 

There are four types of MACs:  unconditionally secure, hash function-based, stream cipher-based  and block cipher-based  In the past, the most common approach to creating a MAC was to use block ciphers like Data Encryption Standard (DES), but hash-based MACs (HMACs) which use a secret key in conjunction with a cryptographic hash function to produce a hash, have become more widely used.

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OVERVIEW OF NS2?

NETWORK SIMULATOR-2

NS2 is an open-source simulation tool that runs on Linux. 

 It is a discreet event simulator targeted at networking research and 

provides substantial support for simulation of routing, multicast protocols and IP protocols, such as UDP, TCP, RTP and SRM over wired and wireless (local and satellite) networks. It has many advantages that make it a useful tool, such as support for multiple protocols and the capability of graphically detailing network traffic. Additionally, NS2 supports several algorithms in routing and queuing. LAN routing and broadcasts are part of routing algorithms. Queuing algorithms include fair queuing, deficit round-robin and FIFO.

NS architecture 

Object-oriented & modular

pros: code reuse (e.g., TCP variants), maintenance

cons: performance (speed and memory), careful planning of modularity 

Software structure

• uses two languages: C++ and OTcl (Object TCL) -to achieve separation of control- and packet level

             C++ for packet processing

               • fast execution, detailed, full control over execution

               • to make simulator scalable, packet processing must be                       done at C++ level

             OTcl for control

                   • simulation setup, configuration, occasional actions                            (e.g., creating new TCP flows)

NS2 Goals

• To support networking research and education

– Protocol design, traffic studies, etc.

– Protocol comparison;

– New architecture designs are also supported.

• To provide collaborative environment

– Freely distributed, open source

– Increase confidence in result

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What is Underwater Sensor Network?

UNDERWATER SENSOR NETWORK

                              Wireless information transmission through the ocean is one of the enabling technologies for the development of future ocean-observation systems and sensor networks. Applications of underwater sensing range from oil industry to aquaculture, and include instrument monitoring, pollution control, climate recording, prediction of natural disturbances, search and survey missions, and study of marine life. Underwater wireless sensing systems are envisioned for stand-alone applications and control of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and as an addition to cabled systems. For example, cabled ocean observatories are being built on submarine cables to deploy an extensive fibre-optic network of sensors (cameras, wave sensors and seismometers) covering miles of ocean floor.

Underwater networks may also be mobile, with sensors attached to AUVs, low-power gliders or unpowered drifters. Mobility is useful to maximize sensor coverage with limited hardware, but it raises challenges for localization and maintaining a connected network. Energy for communications is plentiful in AUVs, but it is a concern for gliders or drifters.

As with surface sensor networks, network density, coverage and number of nodes are interrelated parameters that characterize a deployment. Underwater deployments to date are generally less dense, have longer range and employ significantly fewer nodes than terrestrial sensor networks. For example, the Seaweb deployment in 2000 involved 17 nodes spread over a 16 km2 area, with a median of five neighbours per node.

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What is DYNAMIC SOURCE ROUTING PROTOCOL?

DYNAMIC SOURCE ROUTING PROTOCOL (DSR)

The Dynamic Source Routing protocol (DSR)  is a 

simple  protocol designed specifically for use in multi-hop

wireless ad hoc networks of mobile nodes. 

Dynamic Source Routing(DSR)isaself- mainting maintaininrouting protocol for wireless networks.

 The protocol can also function with cellular telephone systems and mobile networks with up to about 200 nodes. 

A Dynamic Source Routing network can configure and organize itself independently of oversight by human administrators.

         In Dynamic Source Routing, each source determines the route to be used in transmitting its packets to selected destinations. There are two main components, called Route Discovery and Route Maintenance. Route Discovery determines the optimum path for a transmission between a given source and destination. Route Maintenance ensures that the transmission path remains optimum and loop-free as network conditions change, even if this requires changing the route during a transmission.

Microsoft has developed a version of Dynamic Source Routing known as Link Quality Source Routing (LQSR) specifically for use with their Mesh Connectivity Layer (MCL) technology. MCL facilitates the interconnection of computers into a wireless mesh network using WiFi or WiMax services.

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PRIVACY-PRESERVING AND TRUTHFUL DETECTION OF PACKET DROPPING ATTACKS IN WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS?

WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS

                       Link error and malicious packet dropping are two sources for packet losses in multi-hop wireless ad hoc network. In this paper, while observing a sequence of packet losses in the network, we are interested in determining whether the losses are caused by link errors only, or by the combined effect of link errors and malicious drop. We are especially interested in the insider-attack case, whereby malicious nodes that are part of the route exploit their knowledge of the communication context to selectively drop a small amount of packets critical to the network performance. , we develop a homomorphic linear authenticator (HLA) based public auditing architecture that allows the detector to verify the truthfulness of the packet loss information reported by nodes.

PRIVACY-PRESERVING AND TRUTHFUL DETECTION OF PACKET DROPPING ATTACKS IN WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS

                                          In a multi-hop wireless network, nodes cooperate in relaying/routing traffic. An adversary can exploit this cooperative nature to launch attacks. For example, the adversary may first pretend to be a cooperative node in the route discovery process. Once being included in a route, the adversary starts dropping packets. In the most severe form, the malicious node simply stops forwarding every packet received from upstream nodes, completely disrupting the path between the source and the destination. Eventually, such a severe denial-of-service (DoS) attack can paralyze the network by partitioning its topology. First, the continuous presence of extremely high packet loss rate at the malicious nodes makes this type of attack easy to be detected. Second, once being detected, these attacks are easy to mitigate.

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TRUST MANAGEMENT FOR DEFENDING ON-OFF ATTACKS?

DEFENDING ON-OFF ATTACKS

                               Existing trust management schemes that employ redemption schemes fail to discriminate between temporary errors and disguised malicious behaviors in which the attacker cleverly behaves well and badly alternatively. In this paper, we present the vulnerabilities of existing redemption schemes, and describe a new trust management and redemption scheme that can discriminate between temporary errors and disguised malicious behaviors with a flexible design. We show the analytical results of the trust management scheme, and demonstrate the advantages of the proposed scheme with simulation conducted in a Wireless Sensor Network.

TRUST MANAGEMENT FOR DEFENDING ON-OFF ATTACKS

          Trust is an important but complex concept in social science. Trust helps people to make decisions in unpredictable circumstances by reducing the uncertainty. Many distributed systems can be unpredictable and uncertain when the entities try to collaborate with each other. Because of the great number of possible threats in the varying applications that can be deployed through a distributed system, applying trust in such systems can be quite complex. Research on trust management schemes, which manage trust and decide policies, has emerged as a challenging issue.

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