Mobile Multimedia Streaming Using Secure Multipath in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Supporting reliable and secure multimedia streaming service is a challenging task in the environment of wireless Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) where radio signals are prone to security attacks and the quality of media streaming is degraded by signal strength loss and interference. The mobility of mobile devices makes streaming even more difficult as communication links are often broken when the devices move out of the transmission range of their neighbors. This paper proposes a stable multipath routing algorithm and an intelligent secure data distribution scheme for multimedia streaming in MANETs. The multipath Neighbor Stability Routing is able to find more stable and long-lasting paths than traditional ad hoc routing algorithms. The secure data distribution takes historical data-path distribution into consideration and maximally disperses new multimedia data to reduce the possibility of information leakage to unauthorized parties. The authors’ simulation and analysis indicate that the combination of these two mechanisms can provide high quality paths to achieve secure multimedia streaming.