Quantitative Modeling of Trust and Trust Management Protocols in Next Generation Social Networks Based Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Trust and Trust Management represent the very foundations of Computer and Network Security Protocols enabling all cyber activities. Recent spate of national and global high-impact Cyber Security compromises, threats, vulnerabilities, and exposures leads to fundamental questioning of Trust as the key enabler of all cyber phenomena in the unfolding era of exponentially increasing Distrust. It is therefore necessary to understand the current state of Trust and Trust Management modeling and implementation in the most high security environments such as in Defense & Space. Such understanding can serve as a foundation for modeling, design, and implementation of next generation mobile wireless networks for other high security environments such as in Banking & Finance. This study attempts to understand how Trust and Trust Management are being modeled for the “next generation wireless communication systems” (NIST) such as autonomous self-discovering, self-organizing, and self-adaptive mobile ad hoc networks. Within the context of Network-Centric Operations (NCO), we examine: (i) the capabilities of next generation wireless mobile ad hoc networks; (ii) how trust and trust management are modeled in such mobile ad hoc networks; and, (iii) how trust and trust management are implemented in trust-based task assignment in tactical networks. US Army Research Lab (ARL) Computational and Information Sciences Directorate’s Network Science research program on wireless mobile ad hoc networks is the focus of our case study.