Anonymous Routing Protocols in MANETs, a Security Comparative Analysis

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is considered a type of network which is wireless and has no fixed infrastructure composed of a set if nodes in self organized fashion which are randomly, frequently and unpredictably mobile. MANETs can be applied in both military and civil environments ones because of its numerous applications. This is due to their special characteristics and self-configuration capability. This is due to its dynamic nature, lack of fixed infrastructure, and the no need of being centrally managed; a special type of routing protocols such as Anonymous routing protocols are needed to hide the identifiable information of communicating parties, while preserving the communication secrecy. This paper provides an examination of a comprehensive list of anonymous routing protocols in MANET, focusing their security and performance capabilities.