Clustering Based on Trust of a Node in Mobile Ad-Hoc NETworks

Abstract

The nodes in Mobile ad hoc networks join and leave the networks dynamically. At some point of time there is a possibility of enormous increase in the size of the network. Handling nodes in big network may put a burden on network management schemes and may introduce delays in the network. Dividing big networks in small groups called clusters may prove to be a good solution for handling them in a better and efficient manner. As MANET (Mobile Ad hoc networks) are self organized, the challenge of achieving security is critical. Evolving and managing trust relationships among the nodes in the network are important to carry efficient transmissions. This work proposes a trust based clustering algorithm which forms a cluster of trusted nodes only. Criteria used to select the nodes are the trust value of a node, weight of a node and its residual energy. A trusted cluster gives a better performance in terms of increase in throughput of the network which is well supported by the results produced by this approach. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.