Information Exchange Mechanism Based on Reputation in Mobile P2P Networks

A wireless P2P network could be formed by a number of wireless devices without a central server. Evaluating the trustfulness of other peers is an important issue in such a distributed wireless P2P environment. A trustfulness evaluation mechanism is proposed, based on the feedback from a peer who has exchanged information. A receiving peer could evaluate the reputation of the peer which provides information after information sharing is complete. Such evaluation is a reference for the future receiving peers when choosing the information exchangers. If the received information is useful and trustful, the receiving peer gives positive feedback to the providing peer. Gradually, the providing peer gets higher reputation and will have greater chance to be chosen. Based on the experiments, trustful information is more like to be exchanged and kept in the system. Peers have more chance to receive reliable information.