Impact analysis of attacks in multicast routing algorithms in MANETs

MANETs hold the potential to replace the existing wireless technology mainly because of the features it provides like ease of deployment, no need of infrastructure, support of dynamic topology, etc. Therefore, addressing the issues of MANETs is very important. Security of MANETs has always been an important issue affecting their reliability and even their usability and that of routing algorithms plays an important part in the correct operation of MANETs. Since MANET is comparatively new field among wireless technologies and it has various constraints, its design and implementation needs good attention. With the growth in number of hand-held devices and 4G technologies, it is likely that such networks may also become part of our lives in the near future. Today, security is no longer an option in any computer system and security comes with cost. So, an analysis of the MANETs system from security aspects is necessary to make develop preventive and corrective mechanisms. This paper is an attempt to bring into highlight the attack scenarios that can exist in the multicast routing protocols that can exploit vulnerabilities. We have also classified the attacks from the perspective of multicast routing protocols. We have implemented and analyzed the impact of blackhole, jellyfish drop and neighborhood attacks on ODMRP routing protocol for MANETs.