A survey of trust management in mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract

Mobile Ad hoc Network is a type of Ad hoc network that can change locations and configure itself. Mobile ad hoc network is infrastructure-less network of mobile devices connected without wires. Each device can move independently on its own. So, it changes its links or connection with other devices frequently. In MANET host moves frequently in any direction, so that the topology of the network also changes frequently. No specific algorithm is used for routing the packets. Packets/data must be routed by intermediate nodes. It is prone to various attacks easily. Trust plays a pivotal role in the MANETs in predicting the trust values dynamically. There are various approaches to compute trust for a node such as fuzzy trust approach, trust management approach, hybrid approach, etc. MANET is used in many applications like military environments, civilian environments, emergency operations and personal area networking. But mostly used for Military and emergency purpose. In those, environment network connection should be perfect. It requires high level of trust in forwarding the packets to their respective destination. So, each node should forward the packets only to the trusted nodes. Trust computation based on the particular situation or context of a node, by sharing the context data onto the other nodes in the network would give a better solution to this problem. Here we present a survey on various trust management approaches in MANETs. We bring out summary of these approaches for establishing trust of the participating nodes in a dynamic and uncertain MANET environment.