Robust Overlay Routing in Structured, Location Aware Mobile Peer-to-Peer Systems

Mobile Peer-to-Peer architectures provide object and service lookup functionality in absence of a preexisting communication infrastructure. Therefore, those architectures can be harnessed in several application scenarios like disaster relief scenarios where no infrastructure can be assumed and mobility is required. Yet, Mobile Peer-to-Peer architectures inherit the vulnerability to routing attacks from the underlying communication technologies. Further, even though many security mechanisms were developed for traditional Peer-to-Peer architectures, those mechanisms cannot be applied without adaptations to Mobile Peer-to-Peer architectures due to the wireless, mobile underlay network. In this paper, we analyze the vulnerability of the overlays routing algorithm of structured, location aware Mobile Peer-to-Peer architectures against a prominent routing attack. Therefore, we discuss and analyze existing security mechanisms that were developed to ensure a reliable routing process of these architectures. Moreover, we validate and adapt analytic models for the routing algorithm and those previously mentioned security mechanisms.