Securing Mobile Ad-hoc Networks against Jamming Attacks through Unified Security Mechanism

The varieties of studies in the literature have been addressed by the researchers to solve security dilemmas of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANET). Due to the wireless nature of the channel and specific characteristics of MANETs, the radio interference attacks cannot be defeated through conventional security mechanisms. An adversary can easily override its medium access control protocol (MAC) and continually transfer packages on the network channel. The authorized nodes keep sending Request-toSend (RTS) frames to the access point node in order to access to shared medium and start data transfer. However, due to jamming attacks on the network, the access point node cannot assign authorization access to shared medium. These attacks cause a significant decrease on overall network throughput, packet transmission rates and delay on the MAC layer since other nodes back-off from the communication. The proposed method applied for preventing and mitigating jamming attacks is implemented at the MAC layer that consist of a combination of different coordination mechanisms. These are a combination of Point Controller Functions (PCF) that are used to coordinate entire network activities at the MAC layer and RTS/CTS (Clear-To-Send) mechanisms which is a handshaking process that minimizes the occurrence of collisions on the wireless network. The entire network performance and mechanism is simulated through OPNET simulation application.