ABSTRACT
Most routing protocols for client wireless mesh networks were designed without having security in mind. Intermediate nodes could sign the routing message after adding its own integrity protocol address, and verify all the signatures in every routing message. In traditional routing systems, authorization is a matter of policy. In the context of routing, confidentiality and non-repudiation are not necessarily critical services. The infrastructure part can use a routing protocol suitable for fixed networks, the ad hoc networks can use a secure routing protocol suitable for mobile ad hoc networks, and the access points play as gateways of both the infrastructure and the ad hoc networks. The routing protocol uses routing messages to establish the routes that are needed to transmit data messages, and, in the case of a reactive routing protocol, it sees the data messages and refreshes the lifetimes of the routes that those data messages use.
