Trust-based Service Management of Mobile Devices in Ad Hoc Networks

With the proliferation of fairly powerful mobile devices and ubiquitous wireless technology, traditional mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) now migrate into a new era of service oriented MANETs wherein a mobile device can provide and receive service from other mobile devices it encounters and interacts with. We discuss our ongoing research efforts in trust management and trust-based algorithm design for service-oriented MANET applications to answer the challenges of MANET environments, including no centralized authority, dynamically changing topology, limited bandwidth and battery power, limited observations, unreliable communication, and the presence of malicious nodes who act to break the system functionality as well as selfish nodes who act to maximize their own gain. We also highlight key ideas and experiences learned, and provide future research directions. Keywords-service-oriented mobile ad hoc networks; multiobjective optimization; trust; performance analysis.