Acceptability Based Clustering Routing Protocol in MANET

The proliferation of mobile computing and communication devices are driving a revolutionary change in our information society. Among all the applications and services run by mobile devices, network connections and corresponding data services are without doubt the most demanded services by mobile users. A MANET is a continuously self-configuring, infrastructure-less network of mobile devices connected without wires, which makes it ideal for the present scenario. But, due to lack of any centralized infrastructure and access to trusted authorities, the security in MANET poses a huge threat. The prominent routing protocols we know are generally designed for environments where the nodes within a network are non-malicious. Due to the vulnerable nature of the mobile ad hoc network, there are numerous security threats that disturb its development. We propose a routing protocol called Acceptability Based Clustering Routing Protocol (ABCP) for MANETs, which ensures secure routing through the network: by electing a Cluster head on the basis of Acceptability score, after which a node only communicates to that secure Admin node. This selection of secured admin nodes results in mitigation of various threats. We have evaluated our proposed protocol by simulating and comparing in GloMoSim 2.03.