ABSTRACT
In this paper, we investigate the principal issues pertaining to the security of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). We study the threats a WMN faces and the security goals to be achieved. WMN is a new wireless networking model. Unlike traditional wireless networks, WMNs do not rely on any fixed infrastructure. Instead, hosts rely on each other to keep the network connected. Wireless internet service providers are choosing WMNs to offer Internet connectivity, as it allows a fast, easy and inexpensive network deployment. The main challenge in design of these networks is their vulnerability to security attacks. WMNs offer an easy and economical alternative for providing broadband wireless internet connectivity and could be termed as Web-in the sky. These networks have the ability to organize and configure themselves dynamically. These networks provide improved flexibility, efficiency and coverage as compared to the conventional networks.
Nodes in WMNs are highly mobile and change according to the changing topology in an arbitrary manner. The wireless clients have low transmission power, and limited radio ranges, limiting the number of neighboring nodes, resulting in frequent topology changes. Thus all these factors imply that ‘Network Management’ is an essential task. Network management means maintenance and administration of large scale computers and communication networks at the top level. Network Management is based on three basic tasks, i.e. a) mobility management, b) power management, and c) network monitoring
However, multi hop wireless communication networks are facing limitations such as a low throughput and they are also plagued with several security issues.
