A trust change detection mechanism in mobile ad-hoc networks

The versatility and efficiency of mobile ad-hoc networks comes at a certain cost. The network nodes are exposed to a variety of attacks and at the same time they are under memory, processing and energy limitations. Once deployed, the network should operate for as long as possible, mitigating security threats and ensuring the integrity of the data exchanged. This article describes our research on the field, proposing a mechanism to identify malicious nodes and promptly alerting the network. In addition, the same mechanism is used to restore the trust of a malicious node, in case it resumes healthy operation or it was a misclassification issue. The mechanism can be fine-tuned to balance the sensitivity of the reaction and the timely detection of a status change, as required.