Privacy-Preserving Location based on Demand Routing in Manets

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are decentralized, self-configuring wireless networks of mobile nodes that connect without needing fixed infrastructure or central administration. MANETs, secure and efficient routing is a critical challenge, particularly when sensitive location information must be preserved. Traditional on-demand routing protocols often expose node identities and exact coordinates, making them vulnerable to tracking, spoofing, and other privacy-related attacks. This study offers a novel privacy-preserving framework for location-based routing in MANETs, which incorporates three advanced mechanisms: The Anonymous Routing with Location Obfuscation (ARLO) utilizes blockchain and anonymous credentials to verify routing legitimacy and resist identity spoofing. Meanwhile, the Location Cloaking with Adaptive On-Demand Routing (LC-AODR) module hides exact node locations by operating on cloaked regions rather than precise coordinates. Homomorphic Encryption-Based Secure Route Discovery (HE-SRD) enables secure route metric computation over encrypted data, at the time cannot access sensitive information. This technique provides a multi -layered defense against localization attacks, traffic analysis and unauthorized tracking while maintaining high routing efficiency. According to simulation results, the suggested framework enhances privacy protection while lowering computing complexity and achieving 95.4% network performance.