A Dynamic Trust Management Framework for Emergency Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Reliable and robust communication among emergency management teams is vital for successful emergency response efforts. During emergency situations, it is possible that the traditional communication infrastructure may be damaged and may not provide adequate communication services to first responders. Mobile ad hoc networks are commonly used in such type of situations. The emergency ad hoc network comprises of heterogeneous devices owned by different rescue workers belonging to different rescue organizations. The flow of real-time voice and video data over emergency ad hoc network may create network congestion. The network nodes may experience some fault or perform malicious behavior resulting into significant loss of emergency related information. The reception of incomplete information may result into more loss of life and other community resources. We propose a dynamic trust management scheme for emergency ad hoc networks which identifies faulty, congested, and malicious nodes. These nodes are isolated from the established routes to provide reliable and robust communications among first responders. The simulation results show that the network throughput is increased significantly against a little increase in delay.