B-OLSR: An Advanced Blockchain Based Routing Protocol for Enhanced Security Over MANET

Ad Hoc Wireless Networks support communication through few of terminals with changing topologies, which exposes them to vulnerabilities, including a blackhole threat. These attacks result in the compromising of data by malicious nodes which can intercede and modify the information as necessary. The emerging phenomenon offers wireless networking the opportunity to augment its security by using blockchain technology. In this analysis, we propose a novel routing protocol which is dependent over the Optimized Link State Routing algorithm and is called the Advanced Blockchain B-OLSR. It uses blockchain technology alongside homomorphic encryption technology to secure the network. The B-OLSR encrypts the data packets with homomorphic encryption, thus ensuring that the data can be protected without needing decryption at the intermediate nodes. Using Blockchain introduces a method for data storage that is decentralized, has no single point of failure, and no third party databases are relied upon, making it impossible for data to be tampered with. Processing of data begins only after it is decrypted at the destination. The analysis of B-OLSR with routing protocols like AODV, DSR, and OLSR shows that B-OLSR outperforms all other protocols during black hole attack instances in various effective parameters of Quality of Service (QoS) metrics. The Data delivery efficiency, average transmission delay, and throughput achieved in our computations are 91.6%, 23.6 seconds, and 2110 bytes, respectively. This was computed using Python. Compared to the alternative approaches, which have a PDR of 89.1%, AED of 22 seconds, and throughput of 1780 bytes, these values clearly indicate an improvement.