DST-based detection of non-cooperative forwarding behavior of MANET and WSN nodes

Abstract

Selfish node behavior can diminish the reliability of a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) or a wireless sensor network (WSN). Efficient detection of such behavior is therefore essential. One approach is to construct a reputation scheme, which has network nodes determine and share reputation values associated with each node; these values can next be used as input to a routing algorithm to avoid end-to-end routes containing ill-reputed nodes. The main problem lies in handling possibly conflicting evidence of a particular node's behavior so as to enable rapid detection of all selfish nodes. To this end, we explore the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence (DST) as part of a novel framework called DST-SDF and discuss some of its advantages and disadvantages. It differs from existing reputation schemes in that the well-known but faulty watchdog mechanism is dispensed with, and end-to-end acknowledgments are used instead. Sample simulation results illustrate the merits of DST-SDF under two proposed working modes related to the applied rule of evidence combination.