An efficient method for secure routing in delay tolerant networks

Abstract

Delay or Disruption tolerant networks (DTNs) are mobile networks with inherent limitations on network connectivity and topology. There are a number of applications where such networks can be deployed. In extreme situations of lack of connectivity, DTNs nodes stores the messages to the destination and carry it, till it finds and suitable relay node to forward. Most of the existing researchers focused on developing smart relay selection strategies for DTNs. However, the security aspects, such as confidentiality and integrity of the messages being transmitted have been grossly overlooked in the existing DTN routing literature. Hence in this paper, we have addressed the security issues in DTN message forwarding and developed a secure method for message forwarding in DTN. Experimental results show that by incorporating the security features, DTN performance metrics, such as delivery ratio, overhead ratio and delivery delay have been improved compared to traditional routing strategies.