Towards Trust-Centric Networking: A General Model for Trust Evaluation

Advances in networking and computing are moving society towards a cyber space, in which more aspects of our daily lives are being conducted over the Internet. This movement generates concerns regarding trust between the parties involved in these aspects. Nevertheless, trust is a broad topic and thus it is challenging to define a unified mechanism for evaluating trust in communication networks. This article focuses on presenting a general model of trust in communication networks that is flexible enough to be implemented by a wide range of use cases. The model is based on the concept of trust functions, a type of relationship used to evaluate trust. Trust functions are evaluated between two subjects, based on the action that is about to take place and the objects being affected by that action. We use this model to describe a use case of Trust Enhanced Networking and present a discussion regarding trust in communication networks and future challenges.