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We explain below how to simulate a simple DDoS attack in UWAN in NetSim.

Botnet Attack

Case 1: Without a Malicious Node (No attacker)

In NetSim, click on New Simulation > Underwater Networks

• Drop 5 Underwater devices as shown in the figure below.
• Set wireless link channel characteristics as No pathloss
• Configure traffic from all underwater devices 1 through 3 such that the packets are transmitted to device 5 via device 4. The traffic rate is low; it is 1 packet for every 5 seconds.
• Configure static routing so that all source nodes send data to the destination node through Underwater Device 4, which acts as a gateway.
• This parameter set is considered for this particular example and can be suitably modified by the user based on their scenario.
• Run the simulation for 100 seconds and measure the throughput obtained by devices 1 through 3.

Case 2: With a Malicious Node (With a DOS attack node)

• Same model as case 1 with the additional malicious node
• Configure traffic from all underwater devices1 through 3 such that the packets are transmitted to the destination node 5 via device 4. The traffic rate is low; it is 1 packet per every 5 seconds.
• Add a malicious node 6. Configure traffic such that packets are transferred via Underwater device 4. This has a "high" generation rate to flood the network; it is 1 packet per second.
  
• Run the simulation for 100 seconds and measure the throughput obtained by devices 1 through 3.

Results: 

Bit-and-Piece Attack in Underwater Acoustic Networks (UWAN)

A bit-and-piece DDoS attack in an Underwater Acoustic Network (UWAN) is a type of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that targets underwater sensor nodes by distributing small amounts of traffic across multiple devices. This method makes detection difficult while collectively overwhelming the network, leading to service disruption.

Simulation of Bit-and-Piece DDoS Attack in UWAN using NetSim

The following steps outline how to simulate this attack in an underwater acoustic network using NetSim.

1. Network Setup:

   • Create a new simulation for Underwater Acoustic Networks in NetSim.
   • Deploy 5 Underwater Devices in the network.
   • Configure 3 data applications, each transmitting from a device (1–3) to the underwater device 5.
   • Set the packet size to 14 bytes and the transmission rate to 1 packets for every 10 seconds.
   • The network is structured so that all sensor traffic is routed through Underwater device 4, which then forwards it to Underwater device 5. This setup is referred to as Case 1 (Baseline Scenario).

2. Attack Scenarios:

   • Introduce malicious nodes to simulate the attack:

     Case 2: Add 1 malicious node that sends packets of 14 bytes to all underwater devices (1–3) at 1 packet every 9 seconds.
     Case 3: Add 2 malicious nodes sending similar traffic.

3. Simulation and Performance Evaluation:

   • Run the simulation for 100 seconds.
   • Measure network performance using the sum throughput of the sensor applications as the key performance metric.
   • Compare throughput across different attack cases to assess the impact of increasing the number of malicious nodes.

This simulation helps analyze the effect of a bit-and-piece DDoS attack in an underwater acoustic environment 

Results:

We observe:

• A ≈ 60% drop in throughput of legitimate traffic with 1 bit-and-piece DDoS attack node. 
• A ≈ 69% drop in throughput of legitimate traffic with 2 bit-and-piece DDoS attack nodes