RAAODV: a reputation-aware AODV for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are self-configuring autonomous networks consisting of a set of mobile nodes connected by wireless links. The lack of fixed infrastructure and centralized administration makes it necessary for nodes to cooperate with each other to communicate. However, some nodes may choose to stop forwarding packets intended for others to conserve power, bandwidth, and computational resources. These selfish nodes can have a detrimental impact on the performance of the entire network due to packet loss, denial of service, a decrease in network throughput, and network partitioning. The legacy Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol suffers from the inability to mitigate this selfish behavior. In this paper, a new variant of AODV called Reputation-Aware AODV (RAAODV) is proposed and evaluated. RAAODV monitors neighboring nodes, manages reputations, and reacts against detected selfish behavior. Experiments show that RAAODV improves network performance by 54% above legacy AODV when as many as 50% of nodes behave selfishly all the time.