A Blockchain-Enabled Trust Management Framework for Energy-Efficient and Secure Routing in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Abstract

This study principally addresses the challenges associated with streaming videos in wireless Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), primarily constrained by wireless channels and node mobility. This study proposes a novel routing protocol incorporating a feedback mechanism and cross-layer architecture, supported by three key enhancements. First, it incorporates a route recovery strategy for detecting link failures and re-establishing connections based on predefined Quality of Service (QoS) metrics. Second, a novel algorithm estimates the available bandwidth, enabling dynamic adaptation of bitrate at the application layer concerning the source video. This novel rate-adaptive approach utilizes a scalable layered structure of the video coding, thereby removing layers that the network cannot efficiently support due to bandwidth limitations. Third, a gateway discovery procedure enhances the connectivity among MANETs and other infrastructure networks. This method employs available bandwidth as a parameter while selecting appropriate gateways and dynamically adjusts operational parameters like proactive area size and advertisement message frequency. The performances of the proposed Enhanced OLSR (E-OLSR) protocol are compared with the state-of-the-art routing procedures such as Adhoc on-demand distance vector (AODV), destination sequenced distance vector (DSDV), and optimized link state routing (OLSR), in terms of metrics like packet delivery ratio (PDR), end-to-end (E2E) delay, throughput, as well as energy consumption. The simulation results demonstrated notable improvements, including reduced packet delay, fewer dropped packets, and decreased link failures, indicating effective utilization of available bandwidth. The overall performance of the proposed E-OLSR protocol exceeds other traditional protocols and its security is enhanced through the integration of Blockchain Technology.