Trust-based optimized routing scheme in Mobile Social Networks

Abstract

Mobile Social Networks (MSNs), as a type of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) automatically structured by portable devices, have aroused great attention. Comparing with conventional DTNs, data routing in MSNs is a stronger challenge, due to the existence of the nodes' social selfishness, a inherent social attribute of Mobile Social Networks. Social selfishness causes a node is just willing to forward data for its trustful nodes, which makes packets forwarding more difficult in the MSNs. Epidemic routing provides an effective way to deliver packets in socially selfish MSNs, but the adaptability of Epidemic to different network selfishness degrees is not very good. To improve routing adaptability, in this paper, the trust degree metric is firstly defined to depict a node's packet forwarding capability based on node's own trust relationships. And then the trust degree threshold-based Optimized Routing Scheme is introduced, in which the parameter of trust degree threshold can be used to adjust copy spread probability in various selfishness degree networks, so as to enhance the adaptability of routing to network selfishness degrees. Based on the quantitative description of the relationship of the trust degree threshold to the spread probability, simulation shows that the Optimized Routing Scheme is adaptive to various network selfishness degrees and the routing performance can effectively be improved when rationally setting the trust degree threshold parameter.