Research Article

Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs

Volume: 9 Number: 4 September 30, 2026

Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs

Abstract

Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs) find their way into mission-critical environments ranging from disaster relief, military reconnaissance, to agriculture and urban surveillance systems. Dynamic topologies in FANETs expose traditional routing protocols to possible insider attacks that subtly compromise network operation. We present BDTM (Blockchain-inspired Decentralized Trust Management), which is a resource-efficient decentralized system that exploits immutability via hash chains and distributed trust validation without relying on consensus of the entire blockchain. BDTM enhances the AODV routing protocol using four key components: time-weighted trust updates, normalized composite trust score calculations, neighborhood consensus-based trust calculation with a confidence measure and collusive attacks resistance mechanisms. Simulation studies are performed using the NS-3 simulator with 20-100 UAV nodes, mobility speeds of 5-30 m/s and attack ratios varying from 0% to 30%, Blackhole, Sybil and Grayhole attack scenarios. Simulation results demonstrate that BDTM outperforms the performances of Standard AODV, SAODV, WATCHDOG-AODV and TMRP in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and throughput. PDR improvements by BDTM vary between 8% and 43%, depending on the number of nodes and attack ratio. Meanwhile, throughput maintenance in the presence of attacks from 0% to 30% achieves values of 79% and 89%. Energy consumption analysis shows that overhead introduced by the gossip protocol is around 0.93 mJ per gossip round.

Keywords

Ethical Statement

It is declared that during the preparation process of this study, scientific and ethical principles were followed, and all the studies benefited from are stated in the bibliography.

References

  1. I. Bekmezci, O. K. Sahingoz, and Ş. Temel, “Flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs): A survey,” Ad Hoc Netw., vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 1254–1270, 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.adhoc.2012.12.004. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2012.12.004
  2. L. Gupta, R. Jain, and G. Vaszkun, “Survey of important issues in UAV communication networks,” IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 1123–1152, 2nd Quart. 2016, doi: 10.1109/COMST.2015.2495297. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2015.2495297
  3. J. Zhang and V. Varadharajan, “Wireless sensor network key management survey and taxonomy,” J. Netw. Comput. Appl., vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 63–75, 2010, doi: 10.1016/j.jnca.2009.10.001. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2009.10.001
  4. C. E. Perkins, E. Belding-Royer, and S. Das, “Ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing,” IETF, RFC 3561, 2003, doi: 10.17487/RFC3561. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC3561
  5. T. Clausen and P. Jacquet, “Optimized link state routing protocol (OLSR),” IETF, RFC 3626, 2003, doi: 10.17487/RFC3626. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC3626
  6. M. G. Zapata and N. Asokan, “Securing ad hoc routing protocols,” in Proc. ACM Workshop Wireless Secur. (WiSe), pp. 1–10, 2002. doi: 10.1145/570681.570682. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1145/570681.570682
  7. J.-H. Cho, A. Swami, and R. Chen, “A survey on trust management for mobile ad hoc networks,” IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 562–583, 4th Quart. 2011, doi: 10.1109/SURV.2011.092110.00088. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/SURV.2011.092110.00088
  8. S. Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” 2008. [Online]. Available: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Data Security and Protection, Software and Application Security

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

September 30, 2026

Submission Date

June 6, 2026

Acceptance Date

June 24, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 9 Number: 4

APA
Panahı, U. (2026). Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, 9(4), 1062-1079. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis...1965259
AMA
1.Panahı U. Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs. SAUCIS. 2026;9(4):1062-1079. doi:10.35377/saucis.1965259
Chicago
Panahı, Uras. 2026. “Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9 (4): 1062-79. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis. 1965259.
EndNote
Panahı U (September 1, 2026) Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9 4 1062–1079.
IEEE
[1]U. Panahı, “Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs”, SAUCIS, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 1062–1079, Sept. 2026, doi: 10.35377/saucis...1965259.
ISNAD
Panahı, Uras. “Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9/4 (September 1, 2026): 1062-1079. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis. 1965259.
JAMA
1.Panahı U. Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs. SAUCIS. 2026;9:1062–1079.
MLA
Panahı, Uras. “Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, vol. 9, no. 4, Sept. 2026, pp. 1062-79, doi:10.35377/saucis. 1965259.
Vancouver
1.Uras Panahı. Temporal Consensus-Aware Hash-Chained Trust Management for Secure Routing in FANETs. SAUCIS. 2026 Sep. 1;9(4):1062-79. doi:10.35377/saucis. 1965259

 

INDEXING & ABSTRACTING & ARCHIVING

 

31045 31044   Anadolu Türk Eğitim Dergisi  31047 

31043 28939 28938 34240
 

 

29070    The papers in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License