An Authenticated Trust and Reputation Calculation and Management System for Cloud and Sensor Networks Integration

Induced by incorporating the powerful data storage and data processing abilities of cloud computing (CC) as well as ubiquitous data gathering capability of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), CC-WSN integration received a lot of attention from both academia and industry. However, authentication as well as trust and reputation calculation and management of cloud service providers (CSPs) and sensor network providers (SNPs) are two very critical and barely explored issues for this new paradigm. To fill the gap, this paper proposes a novel authenticated trust and reputation calculation and management (ATRCM) system for CC-WSN integration. Considering the authenticity of CSP and SNP, the attribute requirement of cloud service user (CSU) and CSP, the cost, trust, and reputation of the service of CSP and SNP, the proposed ATRCM system achieves the following three functions: 1) authenticating CSP and SNP to avoid malicious impersonation attacks; 2) calculating and managing trust and reputation regarding the service of CSP and SNP; and 3) helping CSU choose desirable CSP and assisting CSP in selecting appropriate SNP. Detailed analysis and design as well as further functionality evaluation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of ATRCM, followed with system security analysis.