Enhancement of Network Security in MANET using Adaptive Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimizer (ACHIO) Algorithm for IoT Applications

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) represent decentralized, highly mobile wireless networks that operate independently without pre-existing infrastructure, offering self-configurable, self-repairing, and self-maintaining capabilities. As MANETs evolve, integrating them with the Internet of Things (IoT) gives rise to a novel MANET-IoT system, aiming to reduce network implementation costs and enhance user mobility. This study proposes a security protocol for MANETs in IoT environments, leveraging enhanced chaotic maps for encryption and decryption strategies. An improved algorithm, the Adaptive Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimizer (ACHIO), is implemented for optimized key management under chaotic maps. Evaluation of the convergence rate against text input size reveals ACHIO’s gradual decrease in convergence rate with increasing text size, showcasing a convergence rate ranging from 0.42 to 0.16. The proposed ACHIO algorithm demonstrates the highest accuracy across text sizes, averaging 86.02%, outperforming the CHHSO and SASFO algorithms with average accuracies of 79.53% and 79.46%, respectively. Additionally, the ACHIO algorithm exhibits a moderate vulnerability to attacks, with a gradual increase in the cost function ranging from 0.08 to 0.0976 with growing text input size. These findings highlight the efficacy of the proposed ACHIO algorithm for secure key management in MANET-IoT systems.