Establishing Trust Relationship in Mobile Ad-Hoc Network

Abstract

Mobile ad-hoc network is a self-organized network made up of mobile devices that do not require any fixed infrastructure to communicate. Due to the temporary cooperation among nodes, and no enough knowledge between each node in advance, it is difficult to establish trust in ad hoc network. This paper presents a novel trust model in which trust is composed of basic trust and application trust. Resource- constrained trust negotiation (RCTN) is addressed to build initial basic trust, in which credential is exchanged only once between two strangers. Application trust relies on the specific context where and when users operate. This trust structure can explain well the dynamic characteristic of trust and can establish the initial trust relationship between strangers.