Performance Impact Analysis of Security Attacks on Cross-Layer Routing Protocols in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

Recently, several cross-layer protocols have been designed for vehicular networks to optimize data dissemination by ensuring internal communications between routing and MAC layers. In this context, a cross-layer protocol, called TDMA-aware Routing Protocol for Multi-hop communications (TRPM), was proposed in order to efficiently select a relay node based on time slot scheduling information obtained from the MAC layer. However, due to the constant evolution of cyber-attacks on the routing and MAC layers, data dissemination in vehicular networks is vulnerable to several types of attack. In this paper, we identify the different attack models that can disrupt the cross-layer operation of the TRPM protocol and assess their impact on performance through simulation. Several new vulnerabilities related to the MAC slot scheduling process are identified. Exploiting of these vulnerabilities would lead to severe channel capacity wastage where up to half of the free slots could not be reserved.