Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is an emerging technology that is gaining importance among traditional wireless communication systems. However, WMNs are particularly vulnerable to external and insider attacks due to their inherent attributes such as open communication medium and decentralized architecture. In this research, we propose a complete distributed and cooperative intrusion detection system for efficient and effective detection of WMN attacks in real-time. Our intrusion detection mechanism is based on reliable exchange of network events and active cooperation between the participating nodes. In our distributed approach, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are independently placed at each mesh node to passively monitor the node routing behavior and concurrently monitor the neighborhood behavior. Based on that, we first implement a Routing Protocol Analyzer (RPA) that accuracy generates Routing Events from the observed traffic, which are then processed by the own node and exchanged between neighboring nodes. Second, we propose a practical Distributed Intrusion Detection Engine (DIDE) component, which periodically calculates accurate Misbehaving Metrics by making use of the generated Routing Events and pre-defined Routing Constraints that are extracted from the protocol behavior. Third, we propose a Cooperative Consensus Mechanism (CCM), which is triggered among the neighboring nodes if any malicious behavior is detected. The CCM module analyzes the Misbehaving Metrics and shares Intrusion Detection Results among the neighbors to track down the source of intrusion. To validate our research, we implemented the distributed intrusion detection solution using a virtualized mesh network platform composed of virtual machines (VMs) interconnected. We also implemented several routing attacks to evaluate the performance of the intrusion detection mechanisms
