A Novel Attack Model Simulation in DSDV Routing

Mobile Ad hoc network consists of a collection of mobile nodes capable of forming instantaneous network with dynamic topology. Each node simultaneously acts as both router and host. Nodes can leave or join the network freely. Destination Sequence Distance Vector (DSDV) is a modification of the conventional Bellman-Ford routing algorithm for ad hoc networks. Dynamic topology of ad hoc networks makes them susceptible to attacks launched by malicious nodes. This paper provides an overview of the DSDV protocol and how DSDV can be exploited by malicious nodes. We propose two types of attacks on DSDV - Byzantine attack and a novel Broken Link attack. Byzantine attacks have mainly been studied with respect to reactive protocols. To the best of our knowledge, Broken Link attack has been proposed for the first time. In this paper we present a way to simulate these attacks and consequent effects on Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). We observe that PDR falls after the onset of attacks. We observe that DSDV has natural reactiveness to attacks and sustaining an attack requires calculated effort. We also show experiments to study effect of Byzantine attack on Multiple Source Destination pairs which has not been done till now. It is observed that the probability of a source being affected increases if attacker moves in its vicinity.