Toward secure network coding in wireless networks: Threats and challenges

In recent years, network coding has emerged as a new communication paradigm that can significantly improve the efficiency of network protocols by requiring intermediate nodes to mix packets before forwarding them. Recently, several real-world systems have been proposed to leverage network coding in wireless networks. Although the theoretical foundations of network coding are well understood, a real-world system needs to solve a plethora of practical aspects before network coding can meet its promised potential. These practical design choices expose network coding systems to a wide range of attacks. In this paper, we identify two general frameworks that encompass several network coding-based systems proposed for unicast in wireless networks. Our systematic analysis of the components of these frameworks reveals vulnerabilities to a wide range of attacks, which may severely degrade system performance. Adequate understanding of these threats is essential to effectively design secure practical network coding systems.