BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED PROTOCOL FOR SECURING A CLASS OF NETWORKS

Although a lot of efforts have been made and a lot of studies have been carried out
in networking security, we cannot go so far as to say the security requirements for the
different types of networks are satisfied. As applications that are applicable to
different networks mature, new security methods are considered necessary.
Infrastructure-less environments are dynamic and mostly difficult to control; hence
security methods designed for other types of networks might not be applicable.
Mobile Ad hoc Networks are subjected to more vulnerabilities than the fixed
networks as they are self-organized, self-configured, and self-controlled
infrastructure-less networks. As such, in this research we are concentrating more on
securing mobile ad hoc networks. Within the wireless domain, packets are forwarded
to the destination usually through the intermediate nodes that act as routers. Packets
are more prone to different vulnerabilities while routed from a source to a destination
passing through untrustworthy intermediate nodes. A change in one bit within an
incoming packet may lead to serious security preaches. In this dissertation, an
immune inspired node-based distributed detection system has been implemented. The
system has been analyzed, algorithms that simulate the main immune mechanisms
have been mapped out, and a security framework that incorporates different immune
mechanisms has been developed. The protocol has been implemented in a real
wireless environment wherein the obtained results ascertain the protocol applicability.
Moreover, other results have been achieved as the protocol has been simulated for
benchmarking purposes. System complexity and scalability have been considered and
analyzed. Although the immune-inspired security protocol (I2MANET) can be applied
to many applications that rely on the wireless communications; in this dissertation, it
has been specified to secure Mobile Telecommunication Services.