Enhancement of Security in Opportunistic Networks

Messages are transmitted opportunistically from a source to the destination in Opportunistic networks (OppNets), which are also known as a subset of disruption-tolerant networks. Such network lacks end-to-end connection because of dynamic network topology and sporadic device connectivity. The two most difficult problems in constructing an OppNet, the process for choosing the subsequent nodes and ensuring confidentiality along with security. Due to this kind of behavior, it is not only difficult to maintain trust but also to perform routing in such networks. To keep up with one parameter, the other is automatically compromised. To solve these issues, existing researchers proposed many trust-based routing techniques which are either based on privacy-preservation routing, delay-aware routing, encryption-based or node reputation-based mechanisms. The intent of this paper is to provide a comprehensive survey of all the existing and recent security solutions in OppNets and a method to distinguish the trusted nodes from non-trustworthy nodes to enhance security of the network.