Cooperation between Trust and Routing Mechanisms for Relay Node Selection in Hybrid MANET-DTN

Today's mobile networks require integration of the different networks in order to transport data between mobile devices. The main problems of all networks occur if the communication paths are disconnected for a short time. The hybrid MANET-DTN is an evolution of the Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) and Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) and it gives the possibilities of data transport between the disconnected islands of the nodes. The key problem is how to select reliable and secure nodes to transport messages between isolated islands with limited connectivity. The selection of the relay nodes is a critical factor because the data are transported via these devices in hostile environments. Two algorithms for a relay node selection based on trust are introduced. These algorithms are activated if the connections are disrupted. The selected relay nodes transport data across the disconnected environment via store-carry-forward mode. The proposed algorithms enable selecting reliable relay nodes based on collecting routing information and contact history. We introduce the network performance analyses of these algorithms. The main idea of the analyses is studying how the algorithms can affect the behaviour of the routing and forwarding mechanisms in the simulator OPNET modeler.