A Secure Cluster Formation Protocol for Safe Consensus in Hierarchical Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In mobile ad hoc network (MANET), it is challenging to design the efficient protocols to handle various coordination problems viz. mutual exclusion, leader election, and consensus. The paper presents a secure cluster formation protocol for handling consensus in the hierarchical MANETs. We segregate the faulty nodes during cluster formation through an authentication mechanism. The proposed protocol works in a layered hierarchy because the mobile nodes are grouped into various clusters at one layer and the cluster heads collectively form the next higher layer. Subsequently, we run a consensus protocol that achieves the agreement on a common value. The protocol is robust and fault resilient. We also present the proof of correctness to ensure safe consensus in a secure cluster.