An Efficient and Truthful Leader IDS Election Mechanism for MANET

In this paper, we consider the problem of increasing the effectiveness of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for a cluster of nodes in ad hoc networks. To solve such a prob- lem, a head cluster is elected by the nodes to handle the de- tection service. Current solution elects a leader randomly without considering the energy level of nodes. Such solu- tion is vulnerable to selfish nodes that do not provide IDS service to others while at the same time benefiting from oth- ers' services. From our experiments, selfish nodes reduce the effectiveness of an IDS since less packets are inspected over time. Here, we are modeling a distributed, truthful, and efficient mechanism for electing a leader IDS that han- dles the detection process in a cluster. Our solution is able to balance the energy among all the nodes and increase the overall lifetime of an IDS in a cluster. In our model, incen- tives are given in the form of reputation to encourage the nodes to cooperate in the leader election process. The rep- utation is used to track the cooperative behavior of nodes where miss-behaving nodes are punished by withholding the cluster's services. Reputations are calculated based on the truth-telling mechanism design known as Vickrey, Clarke, and Groves (VCG). Our analysis prove that truth-telling is the dominant strategy for all the nodes and therefore effi- ciency is guaranteed. Finally, simulation results show that our mechanism improves the performance of an IDS in an- alyzing packets and punishes misbehaving nodes.