Wireless ad hoc network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A wireless ad hoc network is a decentralized type of wireless network.,[1][2] The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points in managed (infrastructure) wireless networks. Instead, each node participates in routing by forwarding data for other nodes, so the determination of which nodes forward data is made dynamically on the basis of network connectivity. In addition to the classic routing, ad hoc networks can use flooding for forwarding data. An ad hoc network typically refers to any set of networks where all devices have equal status on a network and are free to associate with any other ad hoc network device in link range. Ad hoc network often refers to a mode of operation of IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. It also refers to a network device's ability to maintain link status information for any number of devices in a 1-link (aka "hop") range, and thus, this is most often a Layer 2 activity. Because this is only a Layer 2 activity, ad hoc networks alone may not support a routeable IP network environment without additional Layer 2 or Layer 3 capabilities. The earliest wireless ad hoc networks were the "packet radio" (PRNETs) from the 1970s, sponsored by DARPA after the ALOHAnet project.
Contents [hide] 1 Application 2 Technical requirements 3 Medium-access control 4 Mathematical models 5 Security 6 Simulation of wireless ad hoc networks 7 See also 8 References

Application[edit]
The decentralized nature of wireless ad hoc networks makes them suitable for a variety of applications where central nodes can't be relied on and may improve the scalability of networks

compared to wireless managed networks, though theoretical[3] and practical[4] limits to the overall capacity of such networks have been identified. Minimal configuration and quick deployment make ad hoc networks suitable for emergency situations like natural disasters or military conflicts. The presence of dynamic and adaptive routing protocols enables ad hoc networks to be formed quickly. Wireless ad-hoc networks can be further classified by their application:

mobile ad hoc networks (MANET)

Technical requirements[edit]
An ad hoc network is made up of multiple nodes connected by links. Links are influenced by the node's resources (e.g., transmitter power, computing power and memory) and behavioral properties (e.g., reliability), as well as link properties (e.g. length-of-link and signal loss, interference and noise). Since links can be connected or disconnected at any time, a functioning network must be able to cope with this dynamic restructuring, preferably in a way that is timely, efficient, reliable, robust, and scalable. The network must allow any two nodes to communicate by relaying the information via other nodes. A path is a series of links that connects two nodes. Various routing methods use one or two paths between any two nodes; flooding methods use all or most of the available paths.[5]

Medium-access control[edit]
In most wireless ad hoc networks, the nodes compete for access to shared wireless medium, often resulting in collisions (interference). Using cooperative wireless communications improves immunity to interference by having the destination node combine self-interference and other-node interference to improve decoding of the desired signal.

Mathematical models[edit]
In recent years mathematical models have been proposed to study various types of wireless ad hoc networks. One class of models involves using stochastic processes to represent the placement of the nodes in the ad hoc network. More specifically, stochastic geometry models of wireless networks have been proposed and studied.

Security[edit]

Microsoft does not allow advanced encryption and security protocols for wireless Ad hoc networks on Windows. In fact, the security hole provided by Ad hoc networking is not only the Ad hoc network itself, but the bridge it provides into other networks (see Ad hoc networks in the article Wireless security).

Simulation of wireless ad hoc networks[edit]

One key problem in Wireless Ad Hoc networks is foreseeing the variety of possible situations that can occur. As a result, Modeling and Simulation using extensive parameter sweeping and what-if analysis becomes an extremely important paradigm for use in ad hoc networks. Traditional M&S tools include NS2,(and recently NS3), OPNET Modeler, and NetSim. However, these tools focus primarily on the simulation of the entire protocol stack of the system. Although this can be important in the proof-of-concept implementations of systems, the need for a more advanced simulation methodology is always there. Agent-based modeling and simulation offers such a paradigm. Not to be confused with multi-agent systems and intelligent agents, agentbased modeling[6] originated from social sciences, where the goal was to evaluate and view largescale systems with numerous interacting "AGENT" or components in a wide variety of random situations to observe global phenomena. Unlike traditional AI systems with Intelligent agents, agentbased modeling is similar to the real world. Agent-based models are thus effective in modeling bioinspired and nature-inspired systems. In these systems, the basic interactions of the components the system, also called Complex Adaptive System, are simple but result in advanced global phenomena such as emergence.

Mobile ad hoc network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Mobile ad hoc networks)

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring infrastructureless network of mobile devices connected by wireless. Ad hoc is Latin and means "for this purpose".[1] Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Each must forward traffic unrelated to its own use, and therefore be a router. The primary challenge in building a MANET is equipping each device to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic. Such networks may operate by themselves or may be connected to the larger Internet. MANETs are a kind of Wireless ad hoc network that usually has a routable networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network. The growth of laptops and 802.11/Wi-Fi wireless networking have made MANETs a popular research topic since the mid-1990s. Many academic papers evaluate protocols and their abilities, assuming varying degrees of mobility within a bounded space, usually with all nodes within a few hops of each other. Different protocols are then evaluated based on measures such as the packet drop rate, the overhead introduced by the routing protocol, end-to-end packet delays, network throughput etc.
Contents [hide] 1 Types 2 Simulations 3 Data monitoring and mining 4 Security o 4.1 Attack classifications

5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

Types[edit]

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) are used for communication among vehicles and between vehicles and roadside equipment

Internet based mobile ad hoc networks (iMANETs) are ad hoc networks that link mobile nodes and fixed Internet-gateway nodes. In such type of networks normal adhoc routing algorithms don't apply directly.

Intelligent vehicular ad hoc networks (InVANETs) are a kind of artificial intelligence that helps vehicles to behave in intelligent manners during vehicle-to-vehicle collisions, accidents, drunken driving etc.

A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is an ad-hoc network but an ad-hoc network is not a MANET.

Simulations[edit]
There are several ways to study MANETs. One solution is the use of simulation tools like OPNET, NetSim and NS2.

Data monitoring and mining[edit]

MANETS can be used for facilitating the collection of sensor data for data mining for a variety of applications such as air pollution monitoring and different types of architectures can be used for such applications.[2] It should be noted that a key characteristic of such applications is that nearby sensor nodes monitoring an environmental feature typically register similar values. This kind of data redundancy due to the spatial correlation between sensor observations inspires the techniques for in-network data aggregation and mining. By measuring the spatial correlation between data sampled by different sensors, a wide class of specialized algorithms can be developed to develop more efficient spatial data mining algorithms as well as more efficient routing strategies.[3] Also researchers have developed performance models[4][5] for MANET by applying Queueing Theory.

Security[edit]
A lot of research has been done in the past but the most significant contributions have been the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and trust based security. None of the protocols have made a decent trade off between security and performance. In an attempt to enhance security in MANETs many researchers have suggested and implemented new improvements to the protocols and some of them have suggested new protocols.

Attack classifications[edit]
These attacks on MANETs challenge the mobile infrastructure in which nodes can join and leave easily with dynamics requests without a static path of routing. Schematics of various attacks as described by Al-Shakib Khan [1] on individual layer are as under:

Application Layer: Malicious code, Repudiation Transport Layer: Session hijacking, Flooding Network Layer: Sybil, Flooding, Black Hole, Grey Hole. Worm Hole, Link Spoofing, Link Withholding, Location disclosure etc.

Data Link/MAC: Malicious Behavior, Selfish Behavior, Active, Passive, Internal External Physical: Interference, Traffic Jamming, Eavesdropping