A Data Intensive Reputation Management Scheme for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

In vehicular ad hoc networks individual vehicles can help each other locate resources and establish trustworthiness under highly dynamic conditions, lacking any centralized trust authority. To ascertain the accuracy and reliability of data aggregated in a distributed manner, we present a reputation management system for such networks that enables devices to quickly adapt to changing local conditions and provides a bootstrapping method for establishing trust relationships where only a few may exist {it a priori}. Our scheme considers cooperativeness and accuracy of peer-provided data as two aspects of trust when evolving trust relationships and managing reputations. We use an epidemic data exchange protocol that incorporates reputation and agreement to ensure high reliability of data and stimulate proactive collaboration above and beyond stipulation, to enhance availability and reliability of data. We present preliminary simulation results which demonstrate the effectiveness of our data intensive reputation management scheme.