Abstract

Mobile ad-hoc networking works properly only if the participating nodes cooperate in routing and forwarding. However, it isadvantageous for individual nodes not to cooperate. A protocol, called CONFIDANT, is proposed for making misbehavior unattractive; it isbased on selective altruism and utilitarianism . Itaims at detecting and isolating misbehaving nodes, thus making it unattractive to deny cooperation. Trust relationships and routing decisions are based on experienced, observed or reported routing and forwarding behavior of other nodes. The detailed implementation of CONFIDANT assumes that the network layer is based on the Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol. A performance analysis of DSR fortified by CONFIDANT is presented and compared with the regular defenseless DSR. It shows that a network with CONFIDANT and up to 60% of misbehaving nodes behaves
almost as well as a gracious/harmless network. All simulations have been implemented and performed in GloMoSim.