A novel intrusion detection approach for wireless ad hoc networks

The potential for rapid and infrastructure-less deployment in harsh geographic terrain as well as in conference-room like scenarios has propelled research on wireless ad hoc networks (MANETs). However, these networks are vulnerable to attackers due to certain inherently vulnerable characteristics. With intrusion prevention measures not guaranteed to work all the time, the need to constantly monitor what is going on in a system and look for intrusions is fulfilled by intrusion detection systems (IDS). In this paper we have proposed a novel and robust IDS for MANETs that aims to combine misuse with anomaly detection. Our protocol-independent design makes use of a self-adjusting threshold scheme that detects a priori known attack patterns with over 90% accuracy and is generally insensitive to false alarms. Experimental results indicate the non-degradability of network performance when our IDS is incorporated in the routing algorithm for security enhancements.