Abstract: Mobile Ad-hoc Networks are cooperative networks that don’t have a centrally managed fixed infrastructure. As the mobile nodes in these networks have sufficient freedom to move in and out of the network at any time randomly, securitizing of the routing appears to be a challenging task, thereby leaving MANETs open to serious attacks and this raises questions on reliability of these networks. All these characteristics and challenges of MANETs grab the attention of many researchers and engineers. This paper sheds some light on a cluster oriented concept to enhance efficiency of the network and an approach for Black Hole attack detection and prevention.

Keywords: MANETs, Black Hole, routing security, simulation, performance analysis