A finite-state-model scheme for efficient cooperation enforcement in mobile ad hoc networks

Operations of mobile ad hoc networks rely on the collaboration of participating nodes to route data for each other. Most of existing cooperation-enforcement techniques employ a reputation mechanism, based on which misbehaving nodes are detected, avoided and penalized. This strategy incurs substantial overhead, and suffers from various attacks. To avoid these drawbacks, we consider in this paper a new approach that employs a finite state model. With this technique, m is behaving node detection is performed on-demand; and malicious node punishment and avoidance are accomplished by only maintaining reputation information within neighboring nodes. This approach greatly simplifies the collaboration enforcement process, incurs little overhead and is robust against various evasive behaviors. Simulation results based on various system configurations indicate that the proposed technique significantly improves network performance.