Harmony Search Algorithm to Prevent Malicious Nodes in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs)

Background: Security is widely acknowledged as a critical problem when implementing mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) given that these networks are vulnerable to routing attacks. Although, providing authentication to the packets at each stage can reduce the risk, MANETs are still vulnerable to such attacks due to the time delay in reporting and analyzing of packets. Therefore, this problem needs further exploration and study to provide an increasingly robust and efficient solution. Materials and Methods: To overcome this problem, this study modified the Chang scheme using the Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA). Data for the study were simulated and analyzed using MATLAB. Results: Results showed that the HSA had a relatively better packet delivery ratio compared with Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Cooperative Bait Detection Scheme (CBDS). The HSA routing protocol achieved 30 and 83% compared with DSR and CBDS, respectively. In addition, a 0.76 and 0.89% routing overhead was achieved by HSA compared with DSR and the CBDS, respectively and the end-to-end delay for HSA was 0.07 and 0.49% compared with DSR and CBDS, respectively. Conclusion: In sum, the study findings imply that HSA performs better than CBDS and DSR.