Fine-grained reputation-based routing in wireless ad hoc networks

Ad hoc networks are very helpful in situations when no fixed network infrastructure is available. They are especially important in emergency situations such as natural disasters and military conflicts. Most developed wireless ad hoc routing protocols are designed to discover and maintain an active path from source to destination with an assumption that every node is friendly and cooperative. However, it is possible that the participating nodes are selfish or malicious. A mechanism to evaluate reputation for each node is essential for the reliability and security of routing protocol in ad hoc networks. We propose a fine-grained reputation system for wireless ad hoc routing protocols based on constantly monitored and updated first and second-hand reputation information. The nodes in the network monitor their neighbors and obtain first-hand information based on the perceived behavior. Second-hand information is obtained by sharing first-hand information with nodes’ neighbors. Our system is able to distinguish between selfish and malicious nodes and take appropriate actions in either case. We employ the moving-window mechanism which enables us to assign more weight to more recent observations and adjust responsiveness of our reputation system to changes in nodes’ behavior. We show that our fine-grained reputation system is able to improve both reliability and security of an ad hoc network when compared to a reputation system that does not distinguish between selfish and malicious nodes.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Cemerlic, Alma

Contributors dc:contributor

• Yang, Li
• Kizza, Joseph; Sartipi, Mina
• College of Engineering and Computer Science

• Wireless communication systems

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/220

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1360