Building Trust-Based Sustainable Networks

Trust is modeled in many disciplines as a key factor in determining if entities cooperate with each other. In the social sciences, particularly within the social, economic, and environmental domains, trust has received considerable attention as the key element to building sustainable societies. However, in the networking and telecommunications fields, trust-based approaches to developing sustainable systems have yet to be examined. In this work, we study how trust can be facilitated among entities to build sustainable networks with limited resources or misbehaving entities by learning from the lessons in the social sciences. We discuss the multifaceted relationships of trust with both security and decision making. We also investigate how socio-cognitive models of trust may enhance the sustainability of a system. We discuss ways to make more intelligent interactions based on trust and economic principles. © 1982-2012 IEEE.