Security Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks
Muhammad Shoaib Siddiqui, Choong Seon Hong
Department of Computer Engineering, Kyung Hee University,
Sochen-ri, Giheung-eup, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 449-701, South Korea.
shoaib@networking.khu.ac.kr, cshong@khu.ac.kr
Abstract
Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a new wireless
networking paradigm. Unlike traditional wireless
networks, WMNs do not rely on any fixed
infrastructure. Instead, hosts rely on each other to keep
the network connected. Wireless internet service
providers are choosing WMNs to offer Internet
connectivity, as it allows a fast, easy and inexpensive
network deployment. One main challenge in design of
these networks is their vulnerability to security attacks.
In this paper, we investigate the principal security
issues for WMNs. We study the threats a WMN faces
and the security goals to be achieved. We identify the
new challenges and opportunities posed by this new
networking environment and explore approaches to
secure its communication.
1
1 Introduction
Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) represent a good
solution to providing wireless Internet connectivity in a
sizable geographic area; this new and promising
paradigm allows network deployment at a much lower
cost than with classic wireless networks. In WMNs, it
is possible to cover the same area, as compared to
WiFi, with less wireless routers, which makes the use
of WMNs a compelling economical case; WMNs are
thus suitable for areas that do not have existing data
cabling or for the deployment of a temporary wireless
network.
WMN has been a field of active research in recent
years. However, most of the research has been focused
around various protocols for multi hop routing leaving
the area of security mostly unexplored [3]. At the same
time, new applications of WMNs introduce a need for
strong privacy protection and security mechanisms.
In this paper, first, we look at the characteristics of
WMNs and the challenges these characteristics impose
in section 2. In section 3, we analyze the basic high
level security issues that every network has; such as
1
This paper was supported by MIC and ITRC Project.
availability, authenticity, integrity and confidentiality.
We then look into the Secure Routing, Key
management, Trust Management and Intrusion
Detection Issues in WMNs, in section 4.
2 Characteristics of WMNs
WMN is a wireless co-operative communication
infrastructure between a massive amount of individual
wireless transceivers (i.e. a wireless mesh). This type
of infrastructure is decentralized, relatively
inexpensive, and very reliable and resilient, as each
node need only transmit as far as the next node. Nodes
act as repeaters to transmit data from nearby nodes to
peers that are too far away to reach, resulting in a
network that can span large distances, especially over
rough or difficult terrain.
WMNs are extremely reliable, as each node is
connected to several other nodes. If one node drops out
of the network, due to hardware failure or any other
reason, its neighbors simply find another route. Extra
capacity can be installed by simply adding more nodes.
Mesh networks may involve either fixed or mobile
devices as shown in Figure 1. The principle is simple:
data will hop from one device to another until it
reaches a given destination. One advantage is that, like
a natural load balancing system, the more devices the
more bandwidth becomes available. Since this wireless
infrastructure has the potential to be much cheaper than
the traditional networks, many wireless community
network groups are already creating wireless mesh
networks.
2.1 Constraints
There are four main constraints in wireless mesh
network or in any system which has mobile clients
such as PDAs, cell-phones etc.
1. CPU: large computations on the end nodes are
slow, as computing power of the processor is
small.
2. Battery: total energy resource is very limited and
it is not desirable to use the device for large
computations and transmissions.
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