P-TCP: A Prediction-based Secure Transmission Control Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a prediction-based transmission control protocol (P-TCP) for wireless ad hoc networks that takes feedback from network layer to detect different types of packet losses and adjusts its parameters dynamically according to the varying network environment. Our proposed protocol predicts the values of the control parameters congestion window, congestion window limit, round trip time, and retransmission timeout from their previous state values. A security mechanism has been integrated with the protocol to make it usable in the highly vulnerable wireless ad hoc networks. A low complexity identity-based public key cryptography is proposed that generates a secret session key between source and destination nodes. The three-way handshaking process of P-TCP is secured using this secret session key. Performance comparison along with security analysis shows that the scheme is more efficient and secured compared to similar existing schemes. Simulation results show that P-TCP outperforms the popular New Reno and Ad hoc TCP protocols in terms of throughput and end-to-end delay in three standard network scenarios.

Keywords:

• Congestion window
• Retransmission timeout
• Round trip time
• Security
• Transmission control protocol
• Wireless ad hoc networks

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Uttam Ghosh

Uttam Ghosh received his B. Tech in Information Technology from Govt. College of Engineering and Textile Technology, Serampore, WB, India in the year 2005. He did his MS (by Research) from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India in the year 2009, where presently he is a Ph.D. research scholar. Earlier he has worked as Project Associate in a project on security of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks in ‘North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology’ (NERIST), sponsored by DIT, Govt. of India. He has a number of publications in International Journals (including Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks) and Conferences (including N2S, ICDCN and IEEE WCNC). His main research interests are Computer Networks, Security and Cryptography, Wireless Networks and Mobile Ad-hoc Networks. He is a student member of IEEE. E-mail: [email protected]

Raja Datta

Raja Datta received his B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Regional Engineering College (REC) Silchar, presently named National Institute of Technology (NIT) Silchar, in the year 1988. He completed his M. Tech in Computer Engineering and PhD in Computer Science and Engineering, both from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Presently, he is an Associate Professor with the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering and is also the Professor in-charge of Technology Telecom Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Dr. Raja Datta is a Senior Member of IEEE and has number of publications in Journals and Conferences in the area of Computer Communication and Networks. He has authored a chapter on security of MANET in a hand book published by Morgan Kaufman. Dr. Datta has carried out and is presently handling several projects on ad hoc and sensor networks funded by several organizations like Department of Information Technology (DIT), Indian Railways and Indian Space Research Organizations (ISRO) and DRDO. He is also in the core committee as one of the experts for securing Indian Museum, Kolkata, India. His main research interest is Computer Networks and Distributed Processing that includes but not limited to WDM Optical Networks, Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks, and Computer Architecture. E-mail: [email protected]