20,535 research outputs found
Mobile Social Networking aided content dissemination in heterogeneous networks
Since more and more mobile applications are based on the proliferation of social information, the study of Mobile Social Net-works (MSNs) combines social sciences and wireless communications. Operating wireless networks more efficiently by exploiting social relationships between MSN users is an appealing but challenging option for network operators. An MSN-aided content dissemination technique is presented as a potential ex-tension of conventional cellular wireless net-works in order to satisfy growing data traffic. By allowing the MSN users to create a self-organized ad hoc network for spontaneously disseminating contents, the network operator may be able to reduce the operational costs and simultaneously achieve an improved network performance. In this paper, we first summarize the basic features of the MSN architecture, followed by a survey of the factors which may affect MSN-aided content dissemination. Using a case study, we demonstrate that one can save resources of the Base Station (BS) while substantially lowering content dissemination delay. Finally, other potential applications of MSN-aided content dissemination are introduced, and a range of future challenges are summarized
On Leveraging Partial Paths in Partially-Connected Networks
Mobile wireless network research focuses on scenarios at the extremes of the
network connectivity continuum where the probability of all nodes being
connected is either close to unity, assuming connected paths between all nodes
(mobile ad hoc networks), or it is close to zero, assuming no multi-hop paths
exist at all (delay-tolerant networks). In this paper, we argue that a sizable
fraction of networks lies between these extremes and is characterized by the
existence of partial paths, i.e. multi-hop path segments that allow forwarding
data closer to the destination even when no end-to-end path is available. A
fundamental issue in such networks is dealing with disruptions of end-to-end
paths. Under a stochastic model, we compare the performance of the established
end-to-end retransmission (ignoring partial paths), against a forwarding
mechanism that leverages partial paths to forward data closer to the
destination even during disruption periods. Perhaps surprisingly, the
alternative mechanism is not necessarily superior. However, under a stochastic
monotonicity condition between current v.s. future path length, which we
demonstrate to hold in typical network models, we manage to prove superiority
of the alternative mechanism in stochastic dominance terms. We believe that
this study could serve as a foundation to design more efficient data transfer
protocols for partially-connected networks, which could potentially help
reducing the gap between applications that can be supported over disconnected
networks and those requiring full connectivity.Comment: Extended version of paper appearing at IEEE INFOCOM 2009, April
20-25, Rio de Janeiro, Brazi
On Space-Time Capacity Limits in Mobile and Delay Tolerant Networks
We investigate the fundamental capacity limits of space-time journeys of
information in mobile and Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs), where information is
either transmitted or carried by mobile nodes, using store-carry-forward
routing. We define the capacity of a journey (i.e., a path in space and time,
from a source to a destination) as the maximum amount of data that can be
transferred from the source to the destination in the given journey. Combining
a stochastic model (conveying all possible journeys) and an analysis of the
durations of the nodes' encounters, we study the properties of journeys that
maximize the space-time information propagation capacity, in bit-meters per
second. More specifically, we provide theoretical lower and upper bounds on the
information propagation speed, as a function of the journey capacity. In the
particular case of random way-point-like models (i.e., when nodes move for a
distance of the order of the network domain size before changing direction), we
show that, for relatively large journey capacities, the information propagation
speed is of the same order as the mobile node speed. This implies that,
surprisingly, in sparse but large-scale mobile DTNs, the space-time information
propagation capacity in bit-meters per second remains proportional to the
mobile node speed and to the size of the transported data bundles, when the
bundles are relatively large. We also verify that all our analytical bounds are
accurate in several simulation scenarios.Comment: Part of this work will be presented in "On Space-Time Capacity Limits
in Mobile and Delay Tolerant Networks", P. Jacquet, B. Mans and G. Rodolakis,
IEEE Infocom, 201
Time-Varying Graphs and Dynamic Networks
The past few years have seen intensive research efforts carried out in some
apparently unrelated areas of dynamic systems -- delay-tolerant networks,
opportunistic-mobility networks, social networks -- obtaining closely related
insights. Indeed, the concepts discovered in these investigations can be viewed
as parts of the same conceptual universe; and the formal models proposed so far
to express some specific concepts are components of a larger formal description
of this universe. The main contribution of this paper is to integrate the vast
collection of concepts, formalisms, and results found in the literature into a
unified framework, which we call TVG (for time-varying graphs). Using this
framework, it is possible to express directly in the same formalism not only
the concepts common to all those different areas, but also those specific to
each. Based on this definitional work, employing both existing results and
original observations, we present a hierarchical classification of TVGs; each
class corresponds to a significant property examined in the distributed
computing literature. We then examine how TVGs can be used to study the
evolution of network properties, and propose different techniques, depending on
whether the indicators for these properties are a-temporal (as in the majority
of existing studies) or temporal. Finally, we briefly discuss the introduction
of randomness in TVGs.Comment: A short version appeared in ADHOC-NOW'11. This version is to be
published in Internation Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed
System
PROTECT: Proximity-based Trust-advisor using Encounters for Mobile Societies
Many interactions between network users rely on trust, which is becoming
particularly important given the security breaches in the Internet today. These
problems are further exacerbated by the dynamics in wireless mobile networks.
In this paper we address the issue of trust advisory and establishment in
mobile networks, with application to ad hoc networks, including DTNs. We
utilize encounters in mobile societies in novel ways, noticing that mobility
provides opportunities to build proximity, location and similarity based trust.
Four new trust advisor filters are introduced - including encounter frequency,
duration, behavior vectors and behavior matrices - and evaluated over an
extensive set of real-world traces collected from a major university. Two sets
of statistical analyses are performed; the first examines the underlying
encounter relationships in mobile societies, and the second evaluates DTN
routing in mobile peer-to-peer networks using trust and selfishness models. We
find that for the analyzed trace, trust filters are stable in terms of growth
with time (3 filters have close to 90% overlap of users over a period of 9
weeks) and the results produced by different filters are noticeably different.
In our analysis for trust and selfishness model, our trust filters largely undo
the effect of selfishness on the unreachability in a network. Thus improving
the connectivity in a network with selfish nodes.
We hope that our initial promising results open the door for further research
on proximity-based trust
The Dynamics of Vehicular Networks in Urban Environments
Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) have emerged as a platform to support
intelligent inter-vehicle communication and improve traffic safety and
performance. The road-constrained, high mobility of vehicles, their unbounded
power source, and the emergence of roadside wireless infrastructures make
VANETs a challenging research topic. A key to the development of protocols for
inter-vehicle communication and services lies in the knowledge of the
topological characteristics of the VANET communication graph. This paper
explores the dynamics of VANETs in urban environments and investigates the
impact of these findings in the design of VANET routing protocols. Using both
real and realistic mobility traces, we study the networking shape of VANETs
under different transmission and market penetration ranges. Given that a number
of RSUs have to be deployed for disseminating information to vehicles in an
urban area, we also study their impact on vehicular connectivity. Through
extensive simulations we investigate the performance of VANET routing protocols
by exploiting the knowledge of VANET graphs analysis.Comment: Revised our testbed with even more realistic mobility traces. Used
the location of real Wi-Fi hotspots to simulate RSUs in our study. Used a
larger, real mobility trace set, from taxis in Shanghai. Examine the
implications of our findings in the design of VANET routing protocols by
implementing in ns-3 two routing protocols (GPCR & VADD). Updated the
bibliography section with new research work
STEPS - an approach for human mobility modeling
In this paper we introduce Spatio-TEmporal Parametric Stepping (STEPS) - a simple parametric mobility model which can cover a large spectrum of human mobility patterns. STEPS makes abstraction of spatio-temporal preferences in human mobility by using a power law to rule the nodes movement. Nodes in STEPS have preferential attachment to favorite locations where they spend most of their time. Via simulations, we show that STEPS is able, not only to express the peer to peer properties such as inter-ontact/contact time and to reflect accurately realistic routing performance, but also to express the structural properties of the underlying interaction graph such as small-world phenomenon. Moreover, STEPS is easy to implement, exible to configure and also theoretically tractable
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