TBCS: A Trust Based Clustering Scheme for Secure Communication in Flying Ad-Hoc Networks

Abstract

In Flying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs), coordination and cooperation among nodes are important for efficient data transmission. Cooperation among the nodes hinges on the node behavior and the behavior of the node can be quantified using the concept of trust. Trust helps in segregation of non-cooperative and malicious network nodes, thus increasing the reliability of information exchanged among nodes. In this paper, a Trust Based Clustering Scheme (TBCS) has been proposed for FANETs. TBCS use a multi-criteria fuzzy method for the classification based on the node’s behavior in the fuzzy and complex environment. The proposed scheme makes use of Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy inference method. The reward and punishment mechanism has been introduced to convert the node’s behavior into trust, and to segregate malicious and misbehaving nodes in the FANET. Furthermore, a secure Cluster Head has been selected based on calculated trust values that is responsible for communication with ground control station and inter-cluster communication. TBCS is compared with existing trust models and the experiment results revealed that the proposed TBCS model has high accuracy, better performance, and adaptability in FANETs.