Enhancing MANETs Security Against Black Hole Attacks through Time-Based Node Analysis in AOMDV Protocol

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) rely solely on direct node communication and function without a fixed infrastructure. Due to their decentralized design, they are susceptible to numerous security risks, with black hole attacks posing significant threats to routing integrity and confidentiality. This paper proposes a technique to enhance the Ad hoc On-Demand Multi-path Distance Vector (AOMDV) routing protocol's security against black hole attacks. The method involves a time-based reply message analysis to identify and mitigate malicious nodes. This algorithm improves the protocol's ability to detect and prevent black hole attacks by closely analyzing response time differences between malicious and normal nodes. The results of the simulation show that the suggested solution greatly enhances network performance by lowering the Routing Overhead Ratio from 1388.04% to 0.73% and the Packet Loss Rate from 74% to 11% while keeping a high Packet Delivery Ratio—up to 93% in different scenarios. These enhancements sustain strong data transmission in dynamic MANET environments, supporting network integrity and reliability.