Context-aware adaptive routing for delay tolerant networking
Mirco Musolesi · 2007
Delay tolerant networking has received considerable attention from the research community in the recent years. Advances in wireless and mobile technologies have enabled new application scenarios where intermittent disconnections are common and not exceptional. Examples include communication in sparse mobile ad hoc networks for emergency support, infostation-based systems for connectivity in remote areas and data collection in sensor networks for wildlife monitoring. At the same time, most ofthe existing research work in mobile networking is based on the assumption that a path exists between the sender and the receiver. Therefore, new communication paradigms and techniques have to be designed to make communication possible in these environments. In this thesis we present the design, implementation and evaluation of the Context-aware Adaptive Routing (CAR) protocol for delay-tolerant unicast communication in intermittently connected mobile ad hoc networks. The protocol is based on the idea of exploiting nodes as carriers ofmessages among network partitions to achieve their delivery. The choice ofthe best carrier is made using Kalman filter based prediction techniques and utility theory. We argue that movement ofthe nodes and potential future colocation with the recipient ofthe messages can be used to make intelligent forwarding decisions. We then discuss the design ofa realistic mobility model based on social network theory in order to test the routing protocol. An evaluation of the proposed model using real traces and its mathematical formalisation are also presented. The performance of the Context-aware Adaptive Routing protocol in terms of delivery ratio, delay and overhead are evaluated using simulations based on the proposed mobility model and purely random ones. Finally, we discuss the implementation ofCAR over an opportunistic networking framework (Haggle), outlining possible applications of the general principles at the basis of the proposed approach.