Optimizing Performance of Routing Against Black Hole Attack in MANET using AODV Protocol

MANETs (Mobile Ad hoc Networks) must have a secure way for transmission and communication and this is a quite challenging and vital issue as there is increasing threats of attack on the Mobile Networks. Security is the cry of the day. In order to provide secure communication and transmission, we must understand different types of attacks and their effects on the MANETs. One of these attacks is the Black Hole Attack against network integrity absorbing all data packets in the network. Since the data packets do not reach the destination node on account of this attack, data loss will occur. A MANET is more open to these kinds of attacks because communication is based on mutual trust between the nodes, there is no central point for network management, no authorization facility, vigorously changing topology and limited resources. Here, a mechanism is proposed for the nodes which are deployed in MANETs in order to detect and prevent black hole attacks. The proposed mechanism is incorporated in AODV routing protocol and is implemented and simulated in Network Simulator 2.