Cooperative Caching in Disruption Tolerant Networks with Security

Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are considered to be a successful solution to allow communication between nodes in extreme networking environments. Cooperative caching is one of the best methods of data access in such conditions. One of the major challenges in this scenario is secure and efficient data transfer between nodes. Due to random nature of DTNs, harmful intruders can launch attacks, which may cause misrouting, drop or alteration of packets. Thus, it is imperative to detect such intruders and respond to these intruders in a timely and effective way. The traditional security mechanisms mainly focus on intrusion detection capability only. Incorporating a firewall based intrusion response scheme called smart intrusion blocker, along with the conventional detection method will reduce the complexity of overall security system. This response scheme can create a quick virtual barrier between the data nodes and the intruder, which blocks further communication with the intruder nodes.