A Novel Scheme to Detect Wormhole Attacks in Wireless Mesh Network Priti Gupta #1 , Suveg Moudgil *2 # CSE Department, KUK University Haryana, India *CSE Department, KUK University Haryana, India Abstract— Wireless Mesh Networking is an emerging technology in order to provide a possibility to build a network that can grow in terms of coverage to offer service access (i.e. internet access) for a large number of people with different needs. Wireless mesh networks are more vulnerable to wormhole attack (one out of many kind of attacks). In a typical wormhole attack, two or more malicious nodes plan together by establishing a tunnel using an efficient communication medium. The aim of this paper is to describe a wormhole detection algorithm for wireless mesh networks which detect the wormholes by calculating neighbour list and directional neighbour list of the source node. The main goal of the algorithm is that it can provide approximate location of nodes and effect of wormhole attack on all nodes which is useful in implementing countermeasures. The performance evaluation is done by varying no. of wormholes in the network. Keywords— Wireless Mesh Networks, Wormhole attack, Wormhole Detection, AODV I. INTRODUCTION Wireless LAN (WLAN) Technology is currently experiencing tremendous growth in popularity, offering secure, seamless mobile access into corporate environments, residential areas, and public spaces. Wireless technologies represent rapidly emerging area of growth and for providing ubiquitous access to the network for the campus community. Wireless is being adopted for many new applications to, eg. Connect computers, to allow remote monitoring, to provide access control and security, and to provide solution for environments where wires may not be the best solution. Wireless Mesh Network[1] solution offers a different solution that can be deployed as an integrated solution to existing infrastructure to extend and expand WLAN access beyond traditional hotspot areas, enhancing coverage and offering seamless mobility. The wireless mesh networking has emerged as a promising technology for future broadband wireless access. A wireless mesh network (WMN) consists of mesh nodes which form the backbone of the network. Wireless mesh networks provide reduced infrastructural costs for access networks spanning up to hundreds of square miles by reducing the use of costly wired entry points that supply access to the Internet. Moreover, self-healing property of WMN enables it to route around network faults using multiple, redundant wireless routes. We define such networks as two-tier mesh networks, consisting of a backhaul tier (mesh node to mesh node also called network access) and user access tier (mesh node to client). Instead of the typical wire line backhaul, the wireless mesh nodes forward data to and from wire line entry points. Clients or access nodes throughout the coverage area then connect to local mesh nodes to receive connectivity back to the wire line network. WMN[2] consist of mesh clients, mesh gateways, and mesh routers where mesh routers have minimal mobility and form the backbone of WMNs (Figure 1.1). They provide network access for both mesh and conventional clients. Fig.1.1 A Typical Infrastructure Wireless Mesh Network In wireless mesh networks (WMNs) wireless mesh routers form densely interconnected multi-hop topologies. For local communication and routing to a wired access network the routers automatically configure a wireless broadband backbone. Three kinds of wireless mesh networks can be identified: 1) In infrastructure WMNs [1] mesh routers form a network offering connectivity to clients. The network is meant to be self-configuring and self-healing and to offer gateway functionality for connections to wired networks. 2) Client WMNs are ad-hoc networks formed by clients amongst themselves. None of the dedicated routers or infrastructure exists, so that the clients have to be self- configuring and act as routers for the traffic in the client WMN (if mobility is there then Client WMNs are very similar to MANETs). In this type of architecture, client nodes constitute the actual network to perform routing and Priti Gupta et al, / (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Vol. 5 (3) , 2014, 4798-4801 www.ijcsit.com 4798