Delay Tolerant Networking over the Metropolitan Public Transportation

We discuss MDTN: a delay tolerant application platform built on top of the Public Transportation System (PTS) and able to provide service access while exploiting opportunistic connectivity. Our solution adopts a carrier-based approach where buses act as data collectors for user requests requiring Internet access. Simulations based on real maps and PTS routes with state-of-the-art routing protocols demonstrate that MDTN represents a viable solution for elastic nonreal-time service delivery. Nevertheless, performance indexes of the considered routing policies show that there is no golden rule for optimal performance and a tailored routing strategy is required for each specific case

Using Triggers for Emulation of Opportunistic Networking

Opportunistic networks do not require the availability of an end-to-end path, but may instead take advantage of tem- porary connectivity opportunities. Opportunistic networks pose a challenge for network emulation as the traditional em- ulation setup where application/transport endpoints send/ receive packets from the network following a black box approach is no longer applicable. Instead opportunistic networking protocols and applications need to react to the dynamics of the underlying network beyond what is conveyed through the exchange of packets. In order to support emulation evaluations for such challenging applications we in this paper introduce the concept of emulation triggers that can emulate arbitrary cross-layer feedback and that are synchronized with the emulated scenario. The design and implementation of triggers in the KauNet emulator are described. The use of triggers in the context of opportunistic networking is brie y sketched

Emulating opportunistic networks with KauNet Triggers

In opportunistic networks the availability of an end-to-end path is no longer required. Instead opportunistic networks may take advantage of temporary connectivity opportunities. Opportunistic networks present a demanding environment for network emulation as the traditional emulation setup, where application/transport endpoints only send and receive packets from the network following a black box approach, is no longer applicable. Opportunistic networking protocols and applications additionally need to react to the dynamics of the underlying network beyond what is conveyed through the exchange of packets. In order to support IP-level emulation evaluations of applications and protocols that react to lower layer events, we have proposed the use of emulation triggers. Emulation triggers can emulate arbitrary cross-layer feedback and can be synchronized with other emulation effects. After introducing the design and implementation of triggers in the KauNet emulator, we describe the integration of triggers with the DTN2 reference implementation and illustrate how the functionality can be used to emulate a classical DTN data-mule scenario

VDTNsim: a simulation tool for vehicular delay-tolerant networks

“Copyright © [2010] IEEE. Reprinted from 15th IEEE International Workshop on Computer-Aided Modeling Analysis and Design of Communication Links and Networks.(IEEE CAMAD 2010) ISBN:978-1-4244-7634-3. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.”Developing an adequate network architecture for supporting data communications in vehicular networks is critical to overcome the challenges caused by highly dynamic network topology, connectivity disruption, and intermittent connectivity issues. Among several approaches available in the literature proposed to address these problems, vehicular delay-tolerant networking (VDTN) architecture appears as a recent and innovative solution that integrates the concepts of end-to-end, asynchronous, and variable-length bundle oriented communication; Internet protocol over VDTN; and out-of-band signaling. VDTN architecture, protocols and services are in a fairly early stage of development. Therefore, simulation appears as an important tool providing a highly flexible, low-cost, and fast answer for research questions, and furnishes important inputs for exploring through prototyping. This paper presents and describes the proposal and construction of a simulation tool for VDTN networks, called VDTNsim.Part of this work has been supported by Instituto de Telecomunicações, Next Generation Networks and Applications Group (NetGNA), Portugal, in the framework of the Project VDTN@Lab, and by the Euro-NF Network of Excellence of the Seventh Framework Programme of EU, in the framework of the Specific Joint Research Project VDTN

Survivability in Time-varying Networks

Time-varying graphs are a useful model for networks with dynamic connectivity such as vehicular networks, yet, despite their great modeling power, many important features of time-varying graphs are still poorly understood. In this paper, we study the survivability properties of time-varying networks against unpredictable interruptions. We first show that the traditional definition of survivability is not effective in time-varying networks, and propose a new survivability framework. To evaluate the survivability of time-varying networks under the new framework, we propose two metrics that are analogous to MaxFlow and MinCut in static networks. We show that some fundamental survivability-related results such as Menger's Theorem only conditionally hold in time-varying networks. Then we analyze the complexity of computing the proposed metrics and develop several approximation algorithms. Finally, we conduct trace-driven simulations to demonstrate the application of our survivability framework to the robust design of a real-world bus communication network

Connecting the Edges: A Universal, Mobile-Centric, and Opportunistic Communications Architecture

The Internet has crossed new frontiers with access to it getting faster and cheaper. Considering that the architectural foundations of today's Internet were laid more than three decades ago, the Internet has done remarkably well until today coping with the growing demand. However, the future Internet architecture is expected to support not only the ever growing number of users and devices, but also a diverse set of new applications and services. Departing from the traditional host-centric access paradigm, where access to a desired content is mapped to its location, an information-centric model enables the association of access to a desired content with the content itself, irrespective of the location where it is being held. UMOBILE tailors the information-centric communication model to meet the requirements of opportunistic communications, integrating those connectivity approaches into a single architecture. By pushing services near the edge of the network, such an architecture can pervasively operate in any networking environment and allows for the development of innovative applications, providing access to data independent of the level of end-to-end connectivity availability