Self-nominating trust model based on hierarchical fuzzy systems for peer-to-peer networks

Abstract

Security is a critical constraint for the expansion of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. The autonomy, dynamic and distribution natures benefit both valid and malicious users and also lead that P2P networks are extremely susceptible to malicious users. Exploiting a reputation-based trust model is a feasible solution in such an open environment to build trust relationship among peers. While most of existing trust models focus on restraining the abuse and malicious attacks, intentions and sharing capabilities of peers are mostly ignored. In this paper, we present a self-nominating trust model based on hierarchical fuzzy systems to quantify the behaviors of peers. The reputation is defined based on eight factors, where three promising factors are provided by resource holders to demonstrate their desires, and four capability factors are recorded by requesters to identify the provider’s service capability. The approach degree based updating recommendation is deployed to aggregate the global trust metrics. Experimental results illustrate that our trust model effectively improves the efficiency and security of P2P systems.