Building a trusted route in a mobile ad hoc network considering communication reliability and path length
In a mobile ad hoc network (MANET), a source node must rely on other nodes to forward its packets on multi-hop routes to the destination. Unlike most previous studies that sought only the shortest path, our study proposes a novel trusted route that considers communication reliability and path length for a reliable and feasible packet delivery in a MANET. In most MANET routing schemes, security is an added layer above the routing layer. We introduce the concept of attribute similarity in finding potentially friendly nodes among strangers; so security is inherently integrated into the routing protocol where nodes evaluate trust levels of others based on a set of attributes. Unlike the fixed probability of dropping packets adopted in other routing mechanisms, our new forwarding rule is designed based on the attribute similarity and provides a recommended method in calculating the degree of similarity between attributes. The simulations show that the proposed routing scheme behaves better than the Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol in warding off blackhole and changing behavior attacks and that it is unaffected by slander attacks. We also investigate the effects of transmission range, velocity, and number of nodes on routing performances.
trusted routing mobile ad hoc network attribute similarity trust degree