Broadcasting is a communication model for a node to emit the packets via wireless channels to its neighbor nodes. In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), it is commonly implemented through flooding to find routes, send alarm signals and page a particular host. Conventionally, ad hoc routing protocols, such as AODV, use blind flooding extensively for on-demand route discovery, which could result in a high number of redundant retransmissions, leading to serious contention and collisions referred to as the broadcast storm problem. A gossip-based approach, in which each node forwards a message with some probability, has been proposed in past years to alleviate this problem. The approach combines gossiping with AODV (denoted as AODV+G) and exhibits a significant performance improvement in simulations. In this paper, we make a mathematical inference from observing the behavior of the gossip-based approach, and improve the gossip-based approach by employing the remaining energy of nodes in the gossip mechanism (denoted as AODV+GE) to extend the lifetime of the entire network and improve the packet delivery ratio. Through mathematical inference and simulations we show that AODV+GE outperforms AODV+G in terms of the lifetime of the whole network, average node energy consumption, and packet delivery ratio.

There is a lot of alternative routing protocols used in wireless communications. One of these protocols is Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector routing protocol (AODV). This protocol is used in the mobile ad-hoc networks which are self-configuring networks consisting of the independent mobile devices where each one of these devices acts as a router and forwards traffic from other devices. AODV protocol uses hop count as a routing metric, but in the many cases this metric is not optimal in the wireless networks. The goal of this thesis is to propose the alternative criteria which can be used to select best routes. An integral part of this thesis is the experimental implementations of suggested metrics which will be simulated and evaluated in the selected simulation tool. The conclusion of the thesis analyses results obtained from the simulations of the individual suggested versions.

The Parking Guidance and Information (PGI) system is an important application of Intelligent Transport System (ITS), which has been shown to be an effect service for traffic information and parking management. The roadside Variable Message Sign (VMS) board has been the usual media for the publication of parking information in early PGI systems, and its performance over the years has been studied via simulations and questionnaire surveys. However, survey results show significant discrepancies across various traffic networks in different areas. More recently, parking information services have become available on other media such as mobile and in-vehicle devices. In contrast to VMS-based systems, PGI systems based on new media, especially the in-vehicle class of devices, have not been studied separately. This thesis aims to conduct research into the performance of PGI systems based on invehicle devices, by simulating and comparing a VMS-based PGI system with a Vehicle On-Board Device (VOBD)-based PGI system. A specially designed simulator utilising a routing algorithm known as the Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol in computer networks, has been created in MATLAB. The simulation minimises the influence of specific structures of traffic networks that may be found in some networks, but not others. This is done by simulating a grid-based road network where the capacities of parking stations and their geographic distribution are randomly allocated within specific zones, and the parking demand in each run of simulations is variable load. The results of simulations, including the information reliability, reduction of travel time, demand on on-street parking and the utilisation rates of parking stations, are analysed for multiple scenarios where the compliance rate, the information update policy and the strategy of human behaviour are varied. The analyses reveal a significant advantage of VOBD-based PGI systems over VMS-based PGI systems in terms of the quality of information and the reduction of travel time. At the same time, the analyses highlight the limitations of a PGI system when the demand and supply of parking stations is not appropriately balanced.

The importance of communication is vital in wartime. The capability of having all the position information of the allied and enemy forces in a single Tactical Information Display System (TIDS), maintains a great advantage for deciding what to do before the enemy reacts. A Naval Information Distributing System (NIDS) is developed for building an effective communication infrastructure between the war ships. In the designed network, besides the mobile platforms (ships), some fixed platforms (land stations) are used to transfer the information coming from these mobile platforms to all the other platforms. To demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the Naval Information Distribution System, a discrete event simulation model is developed on a Geographic Information System. The goal of this thesis is to describe and experimentally evaluate an effective and feasible information sharing and routing system for Navy.

The Parking Guidance and Information (PGI) system is an important application of Intelligent Transport System (ITS), which has been shown to be an effect service for traffic information and parking management. The roadside Variable Message Sign (VMS) board has been the usual media for the publication of parking information in early PGI systems, and its performance over the years has been studied via simulations and questionnaire surveys. However, survey results show significant discrepancies across various traffic networks in different areas. More recently, parking information services have become available on other media such as mobile and in-vehicle devices. In contrast to VMS-based systems, PGI systems based on new media, especially the in-vehicle class of devices, have not been studied separately. This thesis aims to conduct research into the performance of PGI systems based on invehicle devices, by simulating and comparing a VMS-based PGI system with a Vehicle On-Board Device (VOBD)-based PGI system. A specially designed simulator utilising a routing algorithm known as the Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol in computer networks, has been created in MATLAB. The simulation minimises the influence of specific structures of traffic networks that may be found in some networks, but not others. This is done by simulating a grid-based road network where the capacities of parking stations and their geographic distribution are randomly allocated within specific zones, and the parking demand in each run of simulations is variable load. The results of simulations, including the information reliability, reduction of travel time, demand on on-street parking and the utilisation rates of parking stations, are analysed for multiple scenarios where the compliance rate, the information update policy and the strategy of human behaviour are varied. The analyses reveal a significant advantage of VOBD-based PGI systems over VMS-based PGI systems in terms of the quality of information and the reduction of travel time. At the same time, the analyses highlight the limitations of a PGI system when the demand and supply of parking stations is not appropriately balanced.

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANETs) is a collection of wireless hosts that can be rapidly deployed as a multi hop packet radio network without the aid of any established infrastructure or centralized administration. Such networks can be used to enable next generation of battlefield applications envisioned by the military, including situation awareness systems for maneuvering war fighters, and remotely deployed unmanned microsensor networks. Ad Hoc networks can also provide solutions for civilian applications such as disaster recovery and message exchanges among safety and security personnel involved in rescue missions. Existing solutions for wired network Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) do not suit wireless Ad Hoc networks. To utilize either misuse detection or anomaly detection to monitor any possible compromises, the IDS must be able to distinguish normal from anomaly activities. To enable intrusion detection in wireless Ad Hoc networks, the research problems are: • How to efficiently collect normal and anomaly patterns of Ad Hoc networks? The lifetime of the hosts is short and Ad Hoc networks do not have traffic concentration points (router, switch). • How to detect anomalies? The loss could be caused by host movement instead of attacks. Unexpectedly long delay could be caused by unreliable channel instead of malicious discard. In this thesis, we have proposed a novel architecture that uses specification based intrusion detection techniques to detect active attacks against the routing protocols of mobile Ad Hoc networks. Our work analyzes some of the vulnerabilities and discuss the attacks against the AODV protocol. Our approach involves the use of an FSM (Finite State Machine) for specifying the AODV routing behavior and the distributed network monitors for detecting the sequence number attack. Our method can detect most of the bad nodes with low false positive rate and the packet delivery ratio can also be increased with high detection rate. For packet dropping attack, we present a distributed technique to detect this attack in wireless Ad Hoc networks. A bad node can forward packets but in fact it fails to do so. In our technique, every node in the network will check the neighboring nodes to detect if any of them fail to forward the packets. Our technique can detect most of the bad nodes with low false positive rate and the packet delivery ratio can also be increased. The proposed solution can be applied to identify multiple malicious nodes cooperating with each other in MANETs and discover secure routes from source to destination by avoiding malicious nodes acting in cooperation. Our technique will detect the sequence number and Packet Dropping attacks in real time within its radio range with no extra overhead. For resource consumption attack, the proposed scheme incurs no extra overhead, as it makes minimal modifications to the existing data structures and functions related to bad listing a node in the existing version of pure AODV. The proposed scheme is more efficient in terms of the resultant routes established, resource reservations, and computational complexity. If multiple malicious nodes collaborate, they in turn will be restricted and isolated by their neighbors, because they monitor and exercise control over forwarding RREQs by nodes. Hence, the scheme successfully prevents Distributed attacks. The proposed scheme shifts the responsibility of monitoring this parameter to the node's neighbor, ensuring compliance of this restriction. This technique solves all of the problems caused due to unnecessary RREQs from a compromised node. Instead of self-control, the control exercised by a node's neighbor results in preventing this attack. Experiments show that the tool provides effective intrusion detection functionality while using only a limited amount of resources. The loop freedom property has been reduced to an invariant on pairs of nodes. Each node decides & transmits its decision to a control center. Robustness to Threats, Robustness to nodes destruction: Loss of Performance (in terms of ratio) is least for Distributed Option and highest for Centralized Option and Robustness to observations deletion. All the proposed schemes were analyzed and tested under different topologies and conditions with varying number of nodes .The proposed algorithms for improving the robustness of the wireless Ad Hoc networks using AODV protocol against Packet Dropping Attack, Sequence Number attack and resource consumption attack have been simulated for an illustrative network of about 30 nodes. Our experiments have shown that the pattern extracted through simulation can be used to detect attacks effectively. The patterns could also be applied to detect similar attacks on other protocols.