A scalable anonymous protocol for heterogeneous wireless ad hoc networks

Issue title: Selected papers of EUC 2005

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Durresi, Mimoza | Paruchuri, Vamsi | Durresi, Arjan | Barolli, Leonard | Takizawa, Makoto

Affiliations: Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, 3-30-1 Wajiro-Higashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 811-0295, Japan | Department of Computer Science, Louisiana State University, 298 Coates Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, 7803, USA | Department of Computers and Systems Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Ishizaka, Hatoyama, Saitama 350-0394, Japan

Note: [] Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 225 578 3902; Fax: +1 225 578 1465; E-mail: durresi@csc.lsu.edu

Abstract: Ensuring anonymity in wireless and hoc networks is a major security goal. Using traffic analysis, the attacker can compromise the network functionality by correlating data flow patterns to event locations/active areas. In this paper we present a novel Scalable Anonymous Protocol that hides the location of nodes and obscure the correlation between event zones and data flow from snooping adversaries. We quantify the anonymity strength of our protocol by introducing a new anonymity metric: Degree of Exposure Index. Our protocol is designed to offer flexible tradeoffs between degree of anonymity and communication-delay overhead.

Keywords: Anonymity, privacy, sensor networks, wireless networks

DOI: 10.3233/JEC-2009-0080

Journal: Journal of Embedded Computing, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 77-85, 2009