Abstract: Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) have garnered considerable research interest owing its popularity to the significant advantages it offers over traditional wireless networks. Recent research in ad hoc networks has focused on implementing secure routing protocols. However singular characteristics of MANET topology namely peer-to-peer architecture, lack of centralized management, resource constraints (battery, bandwidth and computation capacity) and dynamic topology pose significant challenges to security solutions. In this paper, we detail security threats and limitations of AODV [1] and DSR [2] Routing Protocol. We identify the current secure protocols based on AODV and DSR – SAODV, SAR, ARIADNE, SRP and ARAN. We examine the advantages and disadvantages of each secure protocol and compare them based on certain security parameters.

Keywords: MANET, AODV, DSR, SAODV, SRP, ARIADANE, ARAN, TAODV, SRP.