Improving Trust Levels in Wireless Networks Using Blockchain Powered Dempster Shaffer Route Optimization

Abstract

Improved node and network trust levels in wireless networks assist the network to have better security and quality of service (QoS) performance. Security performance is measured in terms of number of attacks detected and mitigated by the network, while QoS performance is measured in terms of end-to-end delay, communication throughput, energy requirement, and packet delivery ratio metrics. In order have good trust levels in the network, a wide variety of methods, including reputation evaluation, historical analysis, temporal network, and node analysis, are proposed by network researchers. Implementation of these algorithms increases computational complexity of the network, thereby increasing end-to-end delay during communication. During routing, repeated calculations of trust in the network further increases number of computational steps required for route selection. These added calculations improve network security but reduce overall QoS at node and network level. Moreover, if these calculations are simplified for reducing computational complexity, then QoS improves but network security is compromised. In order to maintain a high network QoS with sufficient level of security, this paper proposes a novel blockchain powered routing model that uses Dempster Shaffer (DS) route optimization. The model utilizes node-to-node distance, energy efficacy, and temporal packet forwarding capabilities in order to select the most efficient routing strategy. This strategy is combined with a proof-of-work (PoW) based blockchain solution that allows the network to have high trust levels. Due to decentralized processing, the network is able to have good QoS levels along with high security.