A shared secret-based algorithm for securing the OLSR routing protocol

The strongest feature of ad hoc networks is its capability to be rapidly deployed anywhere and anytime without relying on a pre-existing infrastructure. From there, ad hoc networks offer the advantages to be auto-organized, ubiquitous, dynamic and completely autonomous. As a counter part, securing them becomes a more difficult task, especially because of the absence of centralized entities in the network. Inevitably, the security problem presents currently a hot topic raising more and more challenges within industrials and researchers, and many interesting securing solutions were meanwhile proposed, omitting however to suit to ad hoc networks characteristics and therefore disadvantaging them. In this paper, we propose a securing scheme for the OLSR routing protocol based on the secret sharing idea. We initially expose the general characteristics and the security problems related to ad hoc routing protocols. We then address the security requirements of ad hoc routing protocols and the security requirements we focus on. Finally, we define our completely and distributed securing algorithm based on threshold cryptography. A primary main conception objective being to suit as much as possible to ad hoc networks characteristics by avoiding as much as possible assumptions contradictory with the auto-organized and dynamic nature of ad hoc networks. Simulation results depict the additional delay due to security enhancements. Results show that this delay stills suitable to OLSR routing specifications.