Malware-Propagative Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Asymptotic Behavior Analysis

In this paper, the spreading of malicious software over ad hoc networks,where legitimate nodes are prone to propagate the infections theyreceive from either an attacker or their already infected neighbors, isanalyzed. Considering the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) nodeinfection paradigm we propose a probabilistic model, on the basis of the theoryof closed queuing networks, that aims at describing the aggregatedbehavior of the system when attacked by malicious nodes. Because of itsnature, the model is also able to deal more effectively with the stochasticbehavior of attackers and the inherent probabilistic nature of thewireless environment. The proposed model is able to describe accuratelythe asymptotic behavior of malware-propagative large scale ad hocnetworking environments. Using the Norton equivalent of the closedqueuing network, we obtain analytical results for its steady statebehavior, which in turn is used for identifying the critical parametersaffecting the operation of the network. Finally, through modeling andsimulation, some additional numerical results are obtained with respectto the behavior of the system when multiple attackers are present, andregarding the time-dependent evolution and impact of an attack.