A Novel Approach to Manage Trust in Ad Hoc Networks

This paper presents a novel trust model based on the fuzzy inference to improve the security of ad hoc networks. In this model, a general framework for trust inference is provided under which specific techniques are developed to facilitate trust calculations from local observations and third party recommendations. The salient feature of this model is its good incorporation of most concepts essential to trust such as subjectivity, vagueness and uncertainty. Furthermore, a reputation mechanism is used to cope with trust deception and a tailor-made decision algorithm is designed to ensure an efficient use of trust. Simulations prove that the proposed model not only achieves high accuracy and good adaptability in trust evaluation but also manifests itself as robust against attacks. Finally, an application of our generic model to the context of ad hoc routing is presented with its performance further verified.