MARS: Monetized Ad-hoc Routing System (A Position Paper)

A Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) automatically reorganizes itself, allowing moving nodes to join or leave the network at any point in time without disrupting the communication. An essential element of such systems is a routing protocol able to quickly restructure existing routes when nodes leave and provide routes to new nodes. In most MANET routing protocols, nodes are assumed to be altruistic, that is, forward incoming packets to the next node in the route. However, as pointed out in a number of previous works, nodes are often selfish in real world scenarios, refusing to forward incoming packets from their peers but still using the MANET to route their own packets. In this work, we propose MARS, a blockchain-based reputation system that acts as an overlay on top of existing MANET routing protocols (e.g. AODV and OLSR). The main goal of MARS is to keep a publicly available (and verifiable) record of node behavior that can be used to both select good routes and incentivize nodes to actively participate in routing to earn rewards. As a building block, we propose a compact “proof-of-routing” that allows a node to prove that it has participated in the rout- ing of a batch of packets. Upon presenting such a proof, the node earns a reputation point, which is stored as an asset in the blockchain, and as such can be traded for enhanced network services among MANET nodes or for other assets (e.g. cryptocurrencies) with third parties.