A Trusted Waterfall Framework Based Peer to Peer Protocol for Reliable and Energy Efficient Data Transmission in MANETs

MANETs are wireless networks where nodes have very high mobility. Energy loss and dropping of packets are a common phenomenon in MANETs. Establishing a viable route between the source and the destination is the next big challenge in MANETs. We propose a new fuzzy dynamic cluster routing protocol (FDCRP) which incorporates a trusted waterfall framework that tries to address all of the prevalent issues concerning MANETs. Our proposed work will eliminate the need to find a new route from the source to the destination. Instead it would try to establish a route with the help of a peer group of clusters as the packet travels towards the target node. The loss of energy due to frequent clustering can be mitigated by circulating the node information to all the nodes within the communication range. This is done by using a dynamic broadcasting method to propagate the node information involving a natural technique called ant colony optimization involving fuzzy rules. This information sharing would help a MANET to form clusters dynamically even when the nodes move to a new region. The cluster head would be identified beforehand and will be nominated automatically when the new cluster is formed, thus reducing the time and energy involved in cluster oriented operations. We also incorporate a three tier filtering scheme to isolate the trusted nodes in forming a cluster, as there is a heavy possibility that the cluster nodes or even the cluster head turning malicious in the course of a transmission. The FDCRP protocol will help in improving the network performance when compared to the previous network scenario.