Innovative cross-layer defense mechanisms for blackhole and wormhole attacks in wireless ad-hoc networks

Wireless ad-hoc networks operate independently of existing infrastructure, using devices like access points to connect end-user computing devices. Current methods face issues such as low detection accuracy, structural deviation, and extended processing times. This paper proposes a cross-layer approach that leverages knowledge from the physical and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers, which is then shared with higher layers to effectively mitigate wormhole and blackhole attacks. A wormhole attack disrupts communication through tunneling, while a blackhole attack manipulates network traffic by impersonating the source. The proposed cross-layer framework integrates the network, MAC, and physical layers, and is independent of specific network protocols. The physical layer handles channel interference, the network layer manages process handling, and the MAC layer oversees bandwidth information and tracks failed transmissions. Performance metrics are measured in seconds. The Enhanced Support Vector Machine (E-SVM) algorithm, implemented using NS3 software, demonstrates superior performance compared to traditional SVM techniques across multiple metrics, including average energy consumption, average remaining energy, packets received, packet delivery ratio, delay, jitter, throughput, normalized overhead, dropping ratio, and goodput. Simulation results show that E-SVM achieves a 12.5% dropping ratio, 98.459% energy consumption, and an 89.2879% packet delivery ratio, outperforming existing SVM techniques across various network sizes.