A novel trust-scoring system using trustability co-efficient of variation for identification of secure agent platforms

Mobile Agent systems are prevalent in Distributed Environment due to the autonomy and adaptability in diversified situations. Mobile Agents are capable of movement from one platform to another and hence it is a need to ensure the safety of the Mobile Agent during the phase of transit. Since Mobile Agents are capable of deciding their itinerary dynamically, a decision support system which helps to ensure the trustworthiness of a platform would complement the decision. A Trust Scoring System is therefore proposed to measure the trustworthiness of a platform based on a metric termed Trust Score. Trust Score varies dynamically with respect to time and is based on a function comprising of five parameters namely Persistence, Competence, Reputation, Credibility and Integrity. In order to reduce the computational latency, another metric named Trust Rank for platforms, based on Trustability co-efficient of variation is introduced. The experimentation is done in cloud environment with platforms located at different geographic regions. The performance is evaluated in terms of response time and accuracy of decision. From the experimental results, it is evident that the Trust Ranking mechanism consumes less response time and improves the accuracy of decision of Mobile Agents during their itineraries, compared to that of the prototype system that uses Trust Score alone as a measure of decision-making.