Advanced detection of selfish or malicious nodes in ad hoc networks

Abstract

The fact that security is a critical problem when implementing mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is widely acknowledged. One of the different kinds of misbehavior a node may exhibit is selfishness. A selfish node wants to preserve own resources while using the services of others and consuming their resources. One way of preventing selfishness in a MANET is a detection and exclusion mechanism. In this paper, we focus on the detection phase and present different kinds of sensors that can be used to find selfish nodes. First we present simulation results that show the negative effects which selfish nodes cause in MANET. In the related work section we will analyze some of the detection mechanisms proposed in literature so far. Our new detection mechanisms described next are called activity-based overhearing, iterative probing, and unambiguous probing. Simulation-based analysis of these mechanisms show that they are highly effective and can reliably detect a multitude of selfish behaviors. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.