Trust based QOS-aware packet forwarding model for ad hoc network independent of routing protocol

Abstract

The need for users to be able to setup wireless networks as, and when they require, has led to a boom in MANET. The constantly changing status of wireless links, mobility and resource scarcity, pose serious problems when a node in an ad hoc network is required to not only be able to communicate with other neighbors (multiple hops away), but also have demand QOS of intermediate nodes to its delay sensitive packets. As this technology has matured, resource starving of best effort traffic in the presence of priority traffic is not acceptable. Moreover, a true seamless, wireless network would be one in which intermediate nodes do not always need to support the same type of routing protocol in their TCP/IP stack to allow communication between the source and destination node. This research proposes to solve the QOS issues in a wireless ad hoc network by enriching the nodes in a network with trust databases, and a pool table to keep records of its previous interactions with all malicious and trustworthy nodes. A node can assign trust points to well behaving nodes and deduct points away from the database for a bad node. Thus, a node can always have a look at an intermediate node’s trust points and its previous performance to decide if this node can be trusted to properly forward its multimedia traffic by satisfying the QOS request. Also, QOS favors are returned promptly to provide incentives for nodes to become trustworthy. This author has proposed to solve the QOS issues in a MANET in a unique way, and has also tried to capture the dynamism of wireless channels by using a Best Effort (BE) timer to gain the best utilization of a costly channel and to provide fairness. A Universal Packet Format is used in this research to ensure communication between two nodes which may be separated by nodes that do not support the same routing protocol in their TCP/IP stack. Hence, an attempt toward a comprehensive solution for achieving the goals of a seamless QOS aware ad hoc network is made in this research work.