Secure bio-inspired optimization with intrusion aware on-demand routing in MANETs

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) are specialized networks that operate in a decentralized manner. As it has no centralized control over communication, the overall network is generally vulnerable to various security threats such as Blackhole, Wormhole, Flooding and Unauthorized access. Although several studies have analysed these issues, ensuring security in MANETs remains a significant challenge. Previous research has achieved security at the cost of significant energy and resource consumption. To resolve this issue, we proposed a novel Secure Bio-Inspired Optimization (Sec-BIO) methodology for routing over MANET. Only when the source node expresses a wish to do so, it builds route. Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) is one of the applications that fall under the category of on-demand routing protocols. The proposed methodology is built upon the conventional AODV protocol which uses bio-inspired Elephant Herding Optimization algorithm. Here, Trust Value (TV) which is the important security measure is considered as the fundamental parameter of route selection. In addition, energy efficacy also plays vital role while selecting optimum path. Before that, the nodes which involve in the network are validated with the Digital Signature Algorithm based authentication procedure (DSA-Auth). It assures that no other unauthorized nodes are allowed in the communication. Next, the data is sent over the trusted secure route selected by proposed approach. To ensure high level security, we intend to use Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) which encrypts the data sent over the network. Here, the normal and intrusion packets are classified at receiver end by means of K-means Clustering approach. In general, the proposed Sec-BIO methodology demonstrates superior performance, achieving a Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) of 90% at 100 nodes, reducing end-to-end delay to 90ms, and lowering energy consumption to 1390 J compared to existing methods.