Fairness of Trust Based Mobile ad hoc Network Protocols

Headnote

Abstract:

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) consists out of a collection of mobile nodes capable of sending and/or receiving wireless communications. MANETs are generally unstructured networks with no centralized administration. MANETs use routing a Igorithms to establish routes among nodes. This unstructured nature presents the opportunity for misbehaviour among nodes. Trust based MANET routing protocols have been developed to counteract malicious behaviour, in an effort to establish fair node behaviour. Recent research has shown that the trust protocols themselves introduce unfair behaviour among nodes. In this paper we look at the current advances in attempts to improve fairness of e-trading trust systems, to improve the fair judgement of e-traders. We then aim to illustrate the similarities among the weakness of e-trading algorithms with those proposed for trust based MANET protocols. Finally we propose an improvement of the current Trust based Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector routing algorithm (TAODV) protocol to factor in all the lessons learned from e-trading algorithms. The newly proposed algorithm will be compared to the existing trust algorithms in three very simplistic scenarios specifically setup to evaluate fair node behaviour. In this paper we specifically do not address the viability of cryptography as a means to insure trust within the network, due to the high computational constraint of encryption and the constraints imposed by relying on a third party certificate body.

Keywords: mobile ad hoc networks; trust; fairness; e-trade

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)

1. Introduction

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) consists of a collection of mobile nodes capable of sending and/or receiving wireless communications ( Balakrishnan, Deng, & Varshnet, 2005). Each node within the network acts either as a sender, receiver or intermediate node during transmission (Wu, Chen, Wu, & Cardei, 2007). This eliminates the need for centralised administration. This open nature of MANET communications m akes i t an at tractive option f or m ilitary and peace r elief oper ations where infrastructures are either damaged or non-existing (Balakrishnan, Deng, & Varshnet, 2005).

The lack of centralised administration makes MANETs a target for network attacks and node misbehaviour (Umuhoza, Agbinya, & Omlin, 2007). Each node has limited resources and, by acting selfishly, it can optimise its gain at the cost of the other network nodes...