Cooperative and Reliable Packet-Forwarding on Top of AODV

Cooperative and reliable packet forwarding presents a formidable challenge in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), due to special network characteristics; e.g., mobility, dynamic topology and absence of centralized management. Lack of cooperation, due to misbehavior caused by selfishness or malice, may severely degrade the performance of the network. Previous studies, relying on reputation systems, have demonstrated solutions designed for Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol. This paper highlights various aspects of cooperation enforcement and reliability, when AODV is the underlying protocol. Furthermore, it presents a scalable protocol that combines a reputation system with AODV that addresses reputation fading, second-chance, robustness against liars and load balancing.