Secure incentives to cooperate for wireless networks

The operating principle of certain wireless networks makes essential the cooperation between the mobile nodes. However, if each node is an autonomous selfish entity, cooperation is not guaranteed and therefore we need to use incentive techniques. In this thesis, we study cooperation in three different types of networks: WiFi networks, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), and Hybrid Ad-hoc networks. Cooperation has a different goal for each of these networks, we thus propose incentive mechanisms adapted to each case. In the first chapter of this thesis, we consider WiFi networks whose wide-scale adoption is impeded by two major hurdles: the lack of a seamless roaming scheme and the variable QoS experienced by the users. We devise a reputation-based solution that (i) allows a mobile node to connect to a foreign Wireless ISP in a secure way while preserving his anonymity and (ii) encourages the WISPs to cooperate, i.e., to provide the mobile clients with a good QoS. Cooperation appears here twofold: First, the mobile clients have to collaborate in order to build and maintain the reputation system and second, the use of this reputation system encourages the WISPs to cooperate. We show, by means of simulations, that our reputation model indeed encourages the WISPs to behave correctly and we analyze the robustness of our solution against various attacks. In the second chapter of the thesis, we consider Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), a new and promising paradigm that uses multi-hop communications to extend WiFi networks. Indeed, by connecting only one hot spot to the Internet and by deploying several Transit Access Points (TAPs), a WISP can extend its coverage and serve a large number of clients at a very low cost. We analyze the characteristics of WMNs and deduce three fundamental network operations that need to be secured: (i) the routing protocol, (ii) the detection of corrupt TAPs and (iii) the enforcement of a proper fairness metric in WMNs. We focus on the fairness problem and propose FAME, an adaptive max-min fair resource allocation mechanism for WMNs. FAME provides a fair, collision-free capacity use of the WMN and automatically adjusts to the traffic demand fluctuations of the mobile clients. We develop the foundations of the mechanism and demonstrate its efficiency by means of simulations. We also experimentally assess the utility of our solution when TAPs are equipped with directional antennas and distinct sending and receiving interfaces in the Magnets testbed deployed in Berlin. In the third and last chapter of this thesis, we consider Hybrid Ad-hoc networks, i.e., infrastructured networks that are extended using multi-hop communications. We propose a secure set of protocols to encourage the most fundamental operation in these networks, namely packet forwarding. This solution is based on a charging and rewarding system. We use "MAC layering" to reduce the space overhead in the packets and a stream cipher encryption mechanism to provide "implicit authentication" of the nodes involved in the communication. We analyze the robustness of our protocols against rational and malicious attacks. We show that the use of our solution makes cooperation rational for selfish nodes. We also show that our protocols thwart rational attacks and detect malicious attacks.