RESEARCH ARTICLE E-TDGO: An encrypted trust-based dolphin glowworm optimization for secure routing in mobile ad hoc network Moresh Madhukar Mukhedkar 1 | Uttam Kolekar 2 1 Department of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering, Research Scholar, Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Navi Mumbai, India 2 Department of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering, Principal, A. P. Shah Institute of Technology, Thane, Mumbai, India Correspondence Moresh Madhukar Mukhedkar, Department of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering, Research Scholar, Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, D. Y. Patil Campus, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, India. Email: moreshmadhukarmukhedkar@gmail.com Summary Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are independent networks, where mobile nodes communicate with other nodes through wireless links by multihop transmission. Security is still an issue to be fixed in MANETs. Hence, a routing protocol named encrypted trust-based dolphin glowworm optimization (DGO) (E-TDGO) is designed using Advanced Encryption Standard-128 (AES-128) and trust-based optimization model for secure routing in MANET. The pro- posed E-TDGO protocol includes three phases, namely, k-path discovery, opti- mal path selection, and communication. At first, k paths are discovered based on the distance and the trust level of the nodes. From the k paths discovered, the optimal path is selected using a novel algorithm, DGO, which is developed by combining glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) algorithm and dolphin echolocation algorithm (DEA). Once the optimal path is selected, communica- tion begins in the network such that E-TDGO protocol ensures security. The routing messages are encrypted using AES-128 with shared code and key to offer security. The experimental results show that the proposed E-TDGO could attain throughput of 0.11, delay of 0.01 second, packet drop of 0.44, and detec- tion rate of 0.99, at the maximum number of rounds considered in the network of 75 nodes with attack consideration. KEYWORDS AES-128, mobility, optimization algorithm, route discovery, routing, security, trust 1 | INTRODUCTION Presently, ad hoc networks, being a popular and widely used network, are employed in various kinds of applications. These are the wireless networks that are self-organized having no centralized or fixed infrastructures. Ad hoc networks are composed of nodes, which can be both clients and routers. 1 Wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs) 2,3 are self- configuring and decentralized wireless network. One of the major features of ad hoc network is that it is independent of any preexisting infrastructure like routers in a wired network and every node in the network involves in routing. 4 The network functionality can be divided into three planes, namely, data plane, control plane, and management plane. The data plane handles the data packets, whereas the control plane implements the routing algorithms. Meanwhile, the network is configured and monitored by the management plane. In the data plane, ad hoc networks undergo sev- eral attacks due to certain characteristics, such as openness and dynamic topology. There are two types of attacks, such Received: 3 August 2018 Revised: 5 September 2019 Accepted: 5 October 2019 DOI: 10.1002/dac.4252 Int J Commun Syst. 2020;e4252. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/dac © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 of 25 https://doi.org/10.1002/dac.4252