Secure Neighbor Position Discovery in Mobile Networks

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 12:00 a.m. to Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 12:55 a.m.
Featuring Claudio Casetti, Ph.D.
Dipartimento di Elettronica
Politocnico di Torino

Location:  2430 Engineering Hall
Free and open to the public
Host: Athina Markopoulou, Ph.D.

Abstract:
In mobile ad-hoc networks, knowledge of neighbor positions is a requirement in a number of important tasks. However, distributed techniques to perform secure neighbor position discovery, suitable for mobile ad-hoc environments, are missing.  In this talk, we address this need by proposing a lightweight Secure Neighbor Position Discovery (SNPD) that relies only on information exchange among neighbors, without any need of a-priori trustworthy nodes.  The challenges that an SNPD system must address are multi-faceted: (i) devices running an SNPD need to be able to track their own position and relate it to a common, reliable time reference; (ii) on-demand, real-time knowledge of neighbor positions and identities is needed; (iii) neighboring devices can be faulty or under the control or influence of an adversary, and must be properly detected.  While we assume that the devices are compliant with the first requirement, we focus on designing an SNPD mechanism that addresses the latter two requirements and allows nodes to validate the positions of neighbors within their communication range in a distributed manner. We envision  a system where nodes act individually but cooperate and leverage the contribution of neighbors to weed out wrong-doers. Our proposal results in a lightweight scheme that can be executed by any mobile node, at any point in time, without prior knowledge or assumed trustworthiness of the other nodes that participate.  We present a detailed security analysis of our protocol in presence of one or multiple (independent or colluding) adversaries, and we show its  performance in vehicular and pedestrian ad hoc network environments.

About the Speaker:
Claudio Casetti is an assistant professor within the Wireless Networks Group at the Dipartimento di Elettronica of Politecnico di Torino,  Italy.  His research interests are in the field of wireless  communications, specifically ad-hoc networks and vehicular networks. He has published more that 110 papers in refereed journals and leading international conferences, and holds three patents.  He has been involved in the chairing committe of several leading international conferences, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) GLOBECOM, IEEE INFOCOM and IEEE/IFIP WONS. Currently he serves as an editor for the Journal of Computer Networks (JCN). He is a Member of IEEE. 

The Wireless Networks Group in the Dipartimento di Elettronica of Politecnico di Torino has a long-term experience in modeling, simulating, and implementing network protocols for wireless networks. Scientific publications from members of the group cover the fields of wireless LANs, ad hoc wireless networks, sensor networks, vehicular networks, and mesh networks.