Enhanced cluster based trust management framework for mobile Ad hoc networks

Trust management in decentralized networks and MANETs are much more complicated than the traditional access point based on wireless networks. The nodes in MANETs are used to provide trust information or evidence to find trustworthy nodes. However, the trust evaluation procedure depends on the local information due to its limited resources. In a trust management framework, there are issues to be resolved that include inefficient monitoring system with trust, inaccuracy in trust computation assign and lack of path selection based on trust. Therefore, in this research, a Trust Management Framework (TMF) was developed to address the aforementioned issues. The framework has the capability to monitor the network, assign trust values, and select an appropriate path for the transmission of packets among nodes which depends on the assignment of trust values. The TMF provides a secure cluster-based trust management to monitor the network that minimizes network overhead, improves path selection based on trust evaluation, and assigns trust for clusters-nodes with improved packet delivery ratio and delay. The performance of the TMF was assessed by performing simulation with Network Simulator version 2 (NS2). The results of the framework were compared with the state-of-the-art frameworks such as Requirement for Neural TMF (RNTMF), Recommendation Trust Framework with Defence Framework (RTMD), and Energy Efficient Secure Dynamic Source Routing (EESDSR). The results demonstrated that the Packets Delivery Ratio (PDR) of the TMF was 25.2% better than RNTMF, 21.4% better than RTMD, and 18.4% better than EESDSR. The overhead of the TMF was 4.5% less than RNTMF, 23.2% less than RTMD, and 26.8% less than EESDSR. The findings showed that TMF has better performance in terms of trust management in MANETs