Quantifying trust in mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

This paper introduces a trust-domain based security architecture for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). The aim of this architecture is twofold: to use trust as a basis to establish keys between nodes in a MANET, and to utilize trust as a metric for establishing secure distributed control in infrastructure-less MANETs. We define metrics for nodes to establish and manage trust, and use this mutual trust to make decisions on establishing group and pair-wise keys in the network. The impact of mobility of the nodes on trust establishment is considered and further its use as a means of propagating trust through the network is investigated. We introduce the concept of self-organizing trust-based physical-logical domains (PLDs) as a means of grouping nodes for distributed control in the network.