Ferry Node Identification Model for the Security of Mobile Ad Hoc Network

Abstract

An opportunistic network is a special type of wireless mobile ad hoc network that does not require any infrastructure, does not have stable links between nodes, and relies on node encounters to complete data forwarding. The unbalanced energy consumption of ferry nodes in an opportunistic network leads to a sharp decline in network performance. Therefore, identifying the ferry node group plays an important role in improving the performance of the opportunistic network and extending its life. Existing research studies have been unable to accurately identify ferry node clusters in opportunistic networks. In order to solve this problem, the concepts of k-core and structural holes have been combined, and a new evaluation indicator, namely, ferry importance rank, has been proposed in this study for analyzing the dynamic importance of nodes in a network. Based on this, a ferry cluster identification model has been designed for accurately identifying the ferry node clusters. The results of the simulations conducted for verifying the performance of the proposed model show that the accuracy of the model to identify the ferry node clusters is 100%.