A quantitative trust establishment framework for reliable data packet delivery in MANETs

In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), a source node must rely on other nodes to forward its packets on multi-hop routes to the destination. Secure and reliable handling of packets by the intermediate nodes is difficult to ensure in an ad hoc environment. We propose a trust establishment scheme for MANETs which aims to improve the reliability of packet forwarding over multi-hop routes in the presence of potentially malicious nodes. Each node forms an "opinion" about each of the other nodes based on both first and second-hand observation data collected from the network. The opinion metric can be incorporated into ad hoc routing protocols to achieve reliable packet delivery even when a portion of the network exhibits malicious behavior. We present numerical results which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed trust establishment scheme.