Blockchain-Driven Lightweight Trust Framework for Secure Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

A MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc Network) is a decentralised, infrastructure-less system inherently vulnerable to a variety of security threats due to its dynamic topology and limited resources. In such networks, traditional trust management approaches, which are typically centralised and resource-intensive, do not meet the security requirements. A hybrid Proof-of- Work (Po W)/Proof-of-Stake (PoS) trust framework that takes advantage of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is presented for MANETs. Three factors are considered in calculating the dynamic trust score: node behaviour, energy efficiency, and communication efficiency. As a result of the proposed model, trust evaluation accuracy and transaction validation are enhanced while the computational overhead and latency are minimised. The results show that the system has strong potential for securing and scaling MANET deployments by reducing detection times, controlling overhead, and mitigating the impact of network attacks.