Information theoretic framework of trust modeling and evaluation for ad hoc networks

Abstract-- The performance of ad hoc networks depends on cooperation and trust among distributed nodes. To enhance security in ad hoc networks, it is important to evaluate trustworthiness of other nodes without centralized authorities. In this paper, we present an information theoretic framework to quantitatively measure trust and model trust propagation in ad hoc networks. In the proposed framework, trust is a measure of uncertainty with its value represented by entropy. We develop four Axioms that address the basic understanding of trust and the rules for trust propagation. Based on these Axioms, we present two trust models: entropy-based model and probability-based model, which satisfy all the Axioms. Techniques of trust establishment and trust update are presented to obtain trust values from observation. The proposed trust evaluation method and trust models are employed in ad hoc networks for secure ad hoc routing and malicious node detection. A distributed scheme is designed to ac...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: JSAC
• Authors: Yan Lindsay Sun, Wei Yu, Zhu Han, K. J. Ray Liu
• Keywords: Ad Hoc Networks, JSAC 2006, Trust, Trust Propagation