Analysis of a Hybrid Reputation Management System for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

In cooperative systems such as wireless ad hoc networks, tasks are conducted based on the cooperation of nodes in the system. However, selfish nodes may refuse to be cooperative. Reputation system and price-based system are two main solutions to this problem. In this paper, we use game theory to investigate the underlying cooperation incentives of both systems. We found that the strategies of using a threshold to determine the trustworthiness of a node in the reputation system and of rewarding cooperative nodes in the price-based system may be manipulated by clever selfish nodes to gain benefits while still being selfish. Illumined by the investigation results, an integrated system is proposed and studied. Theoretical and simulation results show the superiority of the integrated system over individual reputation system and price-based system in terms of the effectiveness of cooperation incentives.