A trust-based multipath routing framework for Mobile Ad hoc NETworks

In a Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET), nodes are self-organized and have to cooperate for routing in absence of fixed infrastructure. Two nodes beyond the direct communication range need intermediate nodes to forward their packets. Working in an open environment, MANETs are vulnerable to attacks by malicious nodes. A trust-based on-demand routing framework is given to decrease the hazards from malicious nodes. In the framework, weighted forwarding ratios are used to compute node trust and a discount rule is employed to compute path trust. Furthermore, adopting the trust model, we propose a reactive routing protocol to find multiple trusted paths in one route discovery, which meet the dependable or trust requirements of data packets. The framework provides a feasible approach to choose a shortest path in all trusted paths. Experimental results show that the trust-based routing protocol is able to achieve an improvement in packet delivery ratios.