Security in mobile ad-hoc networks using soft encryption and trust-based multi-path routing

Due to their applications in situations such as emergencies, crisis management, military and healthcare, message security is of paramount importance in mobile ad-hoc networks. However, because of the absence of a fixed infrastructure with designated centralized access points, implementation of hard-cryptographic security is a challenging prospect.In this paper, we propose a novel method of message security using trust-based multi-path routing. Less trusted nodes are given lower number of self-encrypted parts of a message, making it difficult for malicious nodes to gain access to the minimum information required to break through the encryption strategy. Using trust levels, we make multi-path routing flexible enough to be usable in networks with ‘vital’ nodes and absence of necessary redundancy. In addition, using trust levels, we avoid non-trusted routes that may use brute force attacks and may decrypt messages if enough parts of the message are available to them. Simulation results, coupled with theoretical justification, affirm that the proposed solution is much more secured than the traditional multi-path routing algorithms.