Performance Analysis of Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol Under Blackhole Attacks

International Journal of Computer Science and Technology | Vol. 11, No. 9, September 2009 | pp. 65–72

DOI: 10.46882/2009/IJCST/000018

Article Type: Original Research

Title: Performance Analysis of Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol Under Blackhole Attacks

Names of Authors: Samuel K. Mensah¹, Kwame Opoku²

Authors’ Affiliations: ¹Department of Computer Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; ²School of Engineering and Technology, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

Abstract: Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) are intrinsically vulnerable to security exploits due to their decentralized architecture and dynamic topology. This study systematically analyzes the degradation of the Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol when subjected to single and collaborative malicious blackhole nodes. In a blackhole attack, a malicious node falsely claims the shortest route to drop traffic packets completely. Using NS-2 simulations, we evaluated performance matrices including packet delivery ratio (PDR), end-to-end delay, and routing overhead across networks varying from 20 to 100 mobile nodes. The data reveals that a single blackhole node can degrade network PDR by up to 62.5%, while a team of three collaborative blackhole nodes can collapse the PDR to less than 12.0%. The average end-to-end network latency escalated by an factor of 2.4±0.3 seconds under high adversarial presence. These quantitative evaluations underscore the critical need for cryptographic path validation mechanisms within reactive routing structures.

Keywords: Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, AODV Protocol, Blackhole Attack, Network Security, Packet Delivery Ratio, NS-2 Simulations

Manuscript Timeline: Received: January 28, 2009; Revised: March 10, 2009; Accepted: April 5, 2009; Published: September 12, 2009

Citation: Mensah, S. K., & Opoku, K. (2009). Performance Analysis of Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol Under Blackhole Attacks. International Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 11(9), 65–72.

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