Blockchain-assisted Secure Routing Protocol for Cluster-based Mobile-ad Hoc Networks

MANETs aredecentralized network that involves mobile nodes. As the overall network is mobile and has no centralization, network management, routing, and security become very challenging. Though many works have been presented, still there is a lack in organizing the network due to unauthorized access, centralized security schemes, and the dynamic nature of the nodes. This paper proposed a novel Blockchain-assisted Secure Routing (Block-Sec) protocol for MANETs. All mobile nodes are authenticated by Distributed One-Time Passcode (DOT) based authorization scheme. All authorized nodes are segregated into multiple clusters based on Weight based Dynamic Clustering (WDC) algorithm in which multiple metrics are considered in clustering and re-clustering processes. After cluster formation, each cluster is elected with optimal Cluster Head (CH) by Strawberry Optimization (SBO) algorithm with a new objective function. After cluster formation, the optimal route is selected by Fast Neural Net-assisted Fuzzy (FNNF) algorithm by combining multiple variables. Data transmission is secured by Efficient Elliptic Curve (E2C2) algorithm. With the combined algorithms, the proposed approach obtainedimproved efficiency in packet delivery ratio (PDR), throughput, time analysis, and security level.