Autonomous Group-Based Authentication Mechanism in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In ad hoc networks, trust calculation mechanisms contribute to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy nodes. The individual trust is an important element for the security of the network to isolate the malicious nodes; a related topic is the extent to which it is possible to trust a group as a separate entity. For the most important trust metric, the authenticity of the participants in the network, we propose a self-organized group-based authentication mechanism (SGAM) in which not only the social relationship between each individual, but also the social relationship between groups is considered to authenticate a node. We propose a model that shows how a group of nodes can be trusted. It defines the notion of trust between groups based on different relationships. With this notion, it is possible to identify and isolate low reputed groups containing malicious members and consequently to increase the trust level of authenticity of the nodes in the whole network.