Robust trust management framework for video streaming applications in mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Trust is an important computer networks concept and remains an issue not just in social platforms but also in networks in delivering of Quality of service (QoS). Video Streaming has, over the years gained prominence in mobile and vehicular ad hoc networks. However, video streaming is faced with several challenges of being vulnerable to different attacks and poor QoS. This work proposed a robust and efficient trust management framework that eliminates poor QoS due to network detriments caused by the dynamic topology of a MANET. The trust framework aims to assist in node accountability and QoS attainment, i.e. it does not remove the dynamic topology issue but it strives to attain nodes' trustworthiness and excellent QoS despite the conditions set out against the network. The proposed trust framework is an applicationcentric trust management framework with distributed trust computations (AppTrusFram). It merges the concept of trust together with QoS in an application scenario. This work presented a theoretical-design solution to the topology related issues and discussed issues found in other proposed solutions. The QoS evaluation conducted for low, mid and high node density scenarios based on two routing protocols Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) carrying video conference traffic (high quality). By using the framework and the establishment of trust in the network, the achieved results proved its significance as delay periods were extremely low. The also results proved that OLSR performs better in high node densities and traffic as compared to AODV whose information overhead grows as the network density increases. The results showed overall excellent QoS. A conclusion was drawn that OLSR needs constant topological update messages in order to perform well and this observation be as a future reference point to provide the best service in video streaming applications over MA ETS.