Fuzzy COmplex PRoportional ASsessment of alternatives‐based Node Cooperation Enforcing Trust Estimation Scheme for enhancing Quality of Service during reliable data dissemination in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Abstract

SummaryTrust is considered as the most significant factor that helps in enforcing cooperation among the autonomous nodes of Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANETs). The computation of trust is essential for assessing the level of cooperation rendered by each individual mobile toward the activity of data routing. The calculation of trust in a self‐configuring and infrastructure‐less network is a challenge due to the dynamic movement of mobile nodes. Moreover, the trust of intermediate nodes in the routing path needs to be estimated for preventing the deterioration of network performance. In this paper, a Fuzzy COPRAS‐based Node Cooperation Enforcing Trust Estimation (FCOPRAS‐NCETE) Scheme was proposed for maintaining superior Quality of Service (QoS) in the event of reliable data dissemination. This proposed FCOPRAS‐NCETE Scheme was proposed for comprehensive ranking of mobile nodes acting as intermediate nodes between the source and destination nodes. It incorporated the benefits of fuzzy set theory and COmplex PRoportional ASsessment of alternatives (COPRAS) to determine the trust of intermediate nodes for isolating them from the routing path in the uncertain routing process with the objective to maintain superior QoS in the network. The simulation experiments of the proposed FCOPRAS‐NCETE Scheme conducted using ns‐2 confirmed its predominance in improving the throughput, packet dissemination rate, packet loss rate, energy consumptions and total overhead with different number of mobile nodes, CBR traffic rate and pairs of source and destination nodes in the network.