Critical Issues in Trust Management for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) are adaptive and self-organizing, and as a consequence, securing such networks is non-trivial. Most security schemes suggested for MANETs tend to build upon some fundamental assumptions regarding the trustworthiness of the participating hosts and the underlying networking system. If MANET is to achieve the same level of acceptance as traditional wired and wireless network infrastructures, then a framework for trust management must become an intrinsic part of its infrastructure. The main goal of this paper is to highlight critical issues that impinge upon trust management and to propose a reputation based approach for establishing trust that dynamically assesses the trustworthiness of the participating nodes in the MANET environment.