Title: A secure routing protocol with node selfishness resistance in MANETs

Authors: Chun-Ta Li; Chou-Chen Yang; Min-Shiang Hwang

Addresses: Department of Information Management, Tainan University of Technology, 529 Zhongzheng Road, 710 Tainan, Taiwan. ' Department of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, 402 Taichung, Taiwan. ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Asia University, 500 Lioufeng Road, 413 Taichung, Taiwan

Abstract: In Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs), available nodes must act as their own router and also rely on other nodes to relay communication packets. However, some intermediate nodes may refuse to forward packets to other nodes or discard route-discovery requests from others to save power, as much as those consumed during the message transmission phase. In order to prevent node sel?shness, we have proposed a novel approach to message security using a payment-based mechanism in MANETs. In this way, the proposed routing protocol with payment mechanism not only avoids the sel?sh nodes that may refuse to route packets, but also restrains the nodes from sending useless packets into the networks. Finally, the proposed payment mechanism ensures ad hoc communications in a sel?ess environment by providing economic encouragement to enforce node cooperation in MANETs.

Keywords: identity-based cryptography; mobile ad hoc networks; MANETs; mobile communications; routing protocols; network security; node selfishness; node cooperation; secure routing; mobile networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2012.044525

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2012 Vol.10 No.1, pp.103 - 118

Published online: 28 Dec 2011 *

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