Anonymity, unlinkability and unobservability in mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks have the features of open
medium, dynamic topology, cooperative algorithms, lack of
centralized monitoring etc. Due to these, mobile ad hoc networks
are much vulnerable to security attacks when compared to wired
networks. There are various routing protocols that have been
developed to cope up with the limitations imposed by the ad hoc
networks. But none of these routing schemes provide complete
unlinkability and unobservability. In this paper we have done a
survey about anonymous routing and secure communications in
mobile ad hoc networks. Different routing protocols are analyzed
based on public/private key pairs and cryptosystems, within that
USOR can well protect user privacy against both inside and
outside attackers. It is a combination of group signature scheme
and ID based encryption scheme. These are run during the route
discovery process. We implement USOR on ns2, and then its
performance is compared with AODV.