MuSeQoR: Multi-path failure-tolerant security-aware QoS routing in Ad hoc wireless networks

In this paper, we present MuSeQoR: a new multi-path routing protocol that tackles the twin issues of reliability (protection against failures of multiple paths) and security, while ensuring minimum data redundancy. Unlike in all the previous studies, reliability is addressed in the context of both erasure and corruption channels. We also quantify the security of the protocol in terms of the number of eavesdropping nodes. The reliability and security requirements of a session are specified by a user and are related to the parameters of the protocol adaptively. This relationship is of central importance and shows how the protocol attempts to simultaneously achieve reliability and security. In addition, by using optimal coding schemes and by dispersing the original data, we minimize the redundancy. Finally, extensive simulations were performed to assess the performance of the protocol under varying network conditions. The simulation studies clearly indicate the gains in using such a protocol and also highlight the enormous flexibility of the protocol.