A game theory based secure model against Black hole attacks in Opportunistic Networks

Abstract

Opportunistic Networks, a subset of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs), do not have a predefined source to destination end-to-end path and hence, offer a multitude of challenges with regard to security. In this paper a Potential Threat (PT) based security protocol has been developed which models the characters of the incoming nodes on the basis of swift delivery of messages, their reputation and history. Thus, it secures the network against malicious nodes. The PT based mechanism also trumps previous security based protocols as the basis of its conception is rooted in evolutionary game theory and in evaluating the malicious nodes as a player with certain goals and intentions. A comprehensive comparison with an existing protocol has also been done. The simulations of the protocol are run on the Opportunistic Network Environment (ONE) simulator with Spray and Wait as the base routing protocol. It is observed that the security of the network is much more vigorous with the proposed PT based security protocol. The network also benefits in terms of delivery probability, data packets dropped, network overhead ratio and the average transmission delay.