How to Calculate Network Security Level in NS2

To calculate Network security level in NS2, it defined to measure on how well the network can mitigate, identify, and respond to security attacks like unauthorized access, attacks, and data breaches. NS2 does not directly mimic network security characteristic such as encryption, intrusion detection, etc., however we can model the simulations to measure various aspects of security by executing certain behaviours and evaluating key security metrics.

Here is a complete procedure to calculate the network security level in ns2:

Key Metrics to Measure Network Security in NS2:

To estimate a network security level, we can measure the network in terms diverse aspects, such as:

  1. Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) under attack: evaluate on how well the network achieves in malicious attacks.
  2. Packet Loss due to security breaches: The number of packets lost because interception or meddling.
  3. Intrusion Detection Rate (IDR): The rate at which malevolent activities such as attacks are identified by security mechanisms.
  4. False Positive and False Negative Rates: False alarms and missed detections of malicious activities.
  5. Encryption Effectiveness: The effect of encryption (or lack thereof) on network performance and the mitigation of data breaches.
  6. Authentication Success Rate: If authentication is replicated, the percentage of successful authentications vs. unauthorized access attempts.
  7. Resilience Against Attacks: How well the network maintains functionality in attack such as DDoS, spoofing.

General Steps to Simulate and Measure Network Security in NS2:

  1. Design Network Security Mechanisms: Execute security mechanisms like encryption, intrusion detection, authentication or mimic attacks in the network.
  2. Simulate Normal and Malicious Traffic: Generate both normal and malicious traffic, such as DoS attacks, spoofing, or packet tampering.
  3. Monitor the Network: Utilize the NS2 trace file to monitor the parameters such as packet delivery, delay, packet loss, detection of attacks, etc.
  4. Calculate Security Metrics: Assess the network’s performance by estimating key security parameters like Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Intrusion Detection Rate (IDR), and the number of false positives and false negatives.
  5. Calculate the Network Security Level: According to the security metrics, estimate a score or security level for the network. We can describe a formula or composite score depends on weighted parameters to denote the overall security level.

Example of Simulating Network Security in NS2:

Below is a sample NS2 Tcl script that mimics a network with normal and malicious traffic, in which we can later estimate the security level in terms of detection accuracy, packet delivery ratio, and flexibilityto attacks.

# Create a new simulator instance

set ns [new Simulator]

# Define nodes in the network

set node0 [$ns node]  ;# Source node (normal traffic)

set node1 [$ns node]  ;# Intermediate node

set node2 [$ns node]  ;# Destination node (normal traffic)

set attacker [$ns node]  ;# Malicious node (attacker)

# Define links between nodes

$ns duplex-link $node0 $node1 1Mb 10ms DropTail

$ns duplex-link $node1 $node2 1Mb 10ms DropTail

$ns duplex-link $attacker $node1 1Mb 10ms DropTail ;# Link for the attacker

# Attach UDP agents and normal traffic

set udp0 [new Agent/UDP]

set null0 [new Agent/Null]

$ns attach-agent $node0 $udp0

$ns attach-agent $node2 $null0

$ns connect $udp0 $null0

# Create normal CBR traffic

set cbr0 [new Application/Traffic/CBR]

$cbr0 attach-agent $udp0

$cbr0 set packetSize_ 512

$cbr0 set rate_ 1Mb

# Attach UDP agents for the attacker

set udp_attack [new Agent/UDP]

$ns attach-agent $attacker $udp_attack

$ns connect $udp_attack $node1 ;# The attacker targets node1

# Create high-rate traffic for the attack (e.g., DoS attack)

set cbr_attack [new Application/Traffic/CBR]

$cbr_attack attach-agent $udp_attack

$cbr_attack set packetSize_ 512

$cbr_attack set rate_ 5Mb   ;# High traffic rate to simulate an attack

# Start normal traffic at 1.0s

$ns at 1.0 “$cbr0 start”

# Start attack traffic at 2.0s

$ns at 2.0 “$cbr_attack start”

# Stop both normal and malicious traffic at 5.0s

$ns at 5.0 “$cbr0 stop”

$ns at 5.0 “$cbr_attack stop”

# Open trace file to log events

set tracefile [open trace.tr w]

$ns trace-all $tracefile

# Define finish procedure to close trace file

proc finish {} {

global ns tracefile

$ns flush-trace

close $tracefile

exit 0

}

# End simulation at 6.0 seconds

$ns at 6.0 “finish”

$ns run

Explanation:

  • Normal Traffic: A normal UDP/CBR traffic flow is generated among node0 (source) and node2 (destination), passing through node1.
  • Malicious Traffic: The attacker node creates high-rate traffic that mimics a DoS attack targeting node1 to disturb the network.
  • Trace File Logging: The simulation logs all traffic events (sending, receiving, and dropping of packets) in the trace file for additional analysis.
  1. Metrics to Measure Network Security:

Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) Under Attack:

The Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) evaluates on how many packets are effectively delivered to the destination in the presence of an attack. A lower PDR signifies that the attack was more successful in disturbing network traffic.

PDR=Packets Received by DestinationPackets Sent by Source\text{PDR} = \frac{\text{Packets Received by Destination}}{\text{Packets Sent by Source}}PDR=Packets Sent by SourcePackets Received by Destination​

Bash Script to Calculate PDR:

# Count the number of packets sent by the source

sent_packets=$(grep “^s” trace.tr | grep “_0_” | wc -l)

# Count the number of packets received by the destination

received_packets=$(grep “^r” trace.tr | grep “_2_” | wc -l)

# Calculate Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR)

if [ $sent_packets -gt 0 ]; then

pdr=$(echo “scale=2; $received_packets / $sent_packets * 100” | bc)

echo “Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR): $pdr%”

else

echo “No packets were sent.”

fi

Intrusion Detection Rate (IDR):

The Intrusion Detection Rate (IDR) evaluate on how precisely the network classify malicious traffic. This relaying on either we have executed an intrusion detection mechanism in NS2, however we can mimic this with a detection mechanism.

IDR=True PositivesTrue Positives + False Negatives\text{IDR} = \frac{\text{True Positives}}{\text{True Positives + False Negatives}}IDR=True Positives + False NegativesTrue Positives​

False Positive and False Negative Rates:

  • False Positive Rate (FPR): Evaluate the rate at which normal traffic is inaccurately flagged as malicious.
  • False Negative Rate (FNR): Measures the rate at which malicious traffic is missed.

FPR=False PositivesFalse Positives + True Negatives\text{FPR} = \frac{\text{False Positives}}{\text{False Positives + True Negatives}}FPR=False Positives + True NegativesFalse Positives​ FNR=False NegativesTrue Positives + False Negatives\text{FNR} = \frac{\text{False Negatives}}{\text{True Positives + False Negatives}}FNR=True Positives + False NegativesFalse Negatives​

  1. Post-Simulation Analysis:
  • Use the trace file to measure on how many packets were effectively carried, dropped, or interrupted by the attacker.
  • If we have executed a detection mechanism, calculate the true positives, false positives, and other parameter according the detection outcomes.
  1. Calculate Overall Network Security Level:

We can describe a composite formula to denote the overall network security level by allocating the weights to the numerous key metrics, relay on the security goals. For example:

Network Security Level=w1×PDR+w2×IDR−w3×FPR−w4×FNR\text{Network Security Level} = w_1 \times \text{PDR} + w_2 \times \text{IDR} – w_3 \times \text{FPR} – w_4 \times \text{FNR}Network Security Level=w1​×PDR+w2​×IDR−w3​×FPR−w4​×FNR

Where:

  • w1,w2,w3,w4w_1, w_2, w_3, w_4w1​,w2​,w3​,w4​ are weights that we allocate to each parameters according to its significance in the certain network scenario.

Summary:

  1. Simulate normal and malicious traffic in NS2, and optionally execute security mechanisms like intrusion detection.
  2. Monitor the network using the NS2 trace file, evaluating such as Packet Delivery Ratio, classifying accuracy, false positives, and false negatives.
  3. Calculate key security metrics like PDR, IDR, FPR, and FNR.
  4. Compute the network security level in terms of a composite score or formula that integrates the parameters.

In the presented manual, we demonstrate the comprehensive procedures to computed and execute the Network security level that has key metrics, implementation procedures and sample snippets and summary were given to execute in ns2 tool. Additional specific details regarding the Network security level will be provided.

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