QASEC: A secured data communication scheme for mobile Ad-hoc networks

Abstract Mobile Adhoc NETworks (MANETs) are valuable for various applications due to an efficient, flexible, low-cost and dynamic infrastructure. In these networks, proper utilization of network resources is desirable to maintain Quality of Service (QoS). In multi-hop end-to-end communication, intermediate nodes may eavesdrop on data in transit. As a result, a secured and reliable data delivery from source to destination is required. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme, known as QASEC, to achieve better throughput by securing end-to-end communication in MANETs. The QoS is maintained through an optimal link selection from a queue of available transmission links. The end-to-end communication is secured by authentication. A simple secret-key based symmetric encryption is deployed for interacting nodes. Our proposed QASEC scheme prevents the malicious nodes from data exchange with legitimate intermediate nodes on any established path between the source and the destination. Experimental results show that QASEC performs better in terms of packet-loss rate, jitter and end-to-end delay. Furthermore, QASEC is efficient against various attacks and has a much better performance in terms of associated costs, such as key generation, encryption, and storage and communication.