Securing Ad Hoc Wireless Networks Against Data Injection Attacks Using Firewalls

Overview

This paper proposes to secure ad hoc networks against data injection attacks by placing firewall functionality at strategic locations in the ad hoc network. The paper first shows that, given the locations of attackers and victims, the problem of placement of firewall functionality at a fixed number of ad hoc nodes while minimizing the impact of the data injection attack is identical to the k-Coverage problem. This problem is known to be NPhard. Then, it develops a near-optimal approximate algorithm for placing firewall functions. The paper also incorporates the loss behavior of wireless links in the algorithm. Next, the paper develops an architecture to determine the location of the attackers.