Security in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Impact of Attacks and Countermeasure Approaches

Compared to wired networks, MANETs are more prone to attacks due to their lack of a defined infrastructure and the autonomy of their self-contained nodes. Ensuring security is crucial for applications that handle sensitive data, as it guarantees the quality of service, confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication and non-repudiation. Although attempts have been made to identify security risks and their solutions in MANETs, the existing studies are incomplete or scarce. This article aims to bridge this gap by comprehensively discussing attacks and viable solutions. To illustrate the impact of attacks, the article evaluates the AODV routing protocol’s performance in the presence of several well-defined attacks in MANETs. Based on the assessments and evaluations, the article suggests some countermeasures.