Reputation-based Framework for High Integrity Sensor Networks

In ACM workshop on Security in Ad-hoc & Sensor Networks (SASN) 2004 , 0 pages , Washington D.C. , October 2004.

NESL Technical Report #: TR-UCLA-NESL-200410-01

The traditional approach of providing network security has been to borrow tools from cryptography and authentication. However, we argue that the conventional view of security based on cryptography alone is not sufficient for the unique characteristics and novel misbehaviors encountered in sensor networks. Fundamental to this is the observation that cryptography cannot prevent malicious or non-malicious insertion of data from internal adversaries or faulty nodes. We believe that in general tools from different domains such as economics, statistics and data analysis will have to be combined with cryptography for the development of trustworthy sensor networks. Following this approach, we propose a reputation-based framework for sensor networks where nodes maintain reputation for other nodes and use it to evaluate their trustworthiness. The framework is modularized; we will analyze each building block in detail in this paper. We will show that this framework provides a scalable, diverse and a generalized approach for countering all types of misbehavior resulting from malicious and faulty nodes. We are currently developing a system within this framework where we employ a Bayesian formulation, specifically a beta reputation system, for reputation representation, updates and integration. We will explain the reasoning behind our design choices, analyzing their pros & cons. We conclude the paper by verifying the efficacy of this system through some preliminary simulation results.

• Saurabh Ganeriwal
• Mani B Srivastava

• PDF file of paper

• RFSN : Reputation-based Algorithms in Sensor Networks

Conference Paper