Minimizing detection probability routing in ad hoc networks using directional antennas

  • Authors:

  • Xiaofeng Lu;Don Towsley;Pietro Lio;Fletcher Wicker;Zhang Xiong

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Computer Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, China;Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA;Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK;Communication Network Architectures Subdivision, The Aerospace Corporation, CA;School of Computer Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, China

  • Venue:
  • EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking - Special issue on wireless network security
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

In a hostile environment, it is important for a transmitter to make its wireless transmission invisible to adversaries because an adversary can detect the transmitter if the received power at its antennas is strong enough. This paper defines a detection probability model to compute the level of a transmitter being detected by a detection system at arbitrary location around the transmitter. Our study proves that the probability of detecting a directional antenna is much lower than that of detecting an omnidirectional antenna if both the directional and omnidirectional antennas provide the same Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) in the direction of the receiver. We propose a Minimizing Detection Probability (MinDP) routing algorithm to find a secure routing path in ad hoc networks where nodes employ directional antennas to transmit data to decrease the probability of being detected by adversaries. Our study shows that the MinDP routing algorithm can reduce the total detection probability of deliveries from the source to the destination by over 74%.