From MANET to people-centric networking: Milestones and open research challenges

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art of (mobile) multi-hop ad hoc networking with the aim to present the current status of the research activities and identify the consolidated research areas, with limited research opportunities, and the hot and emerging research areas for which further research is required. We start by briefly discussing the MANET paradigm, and why the research on MANET protocols is now a cold research topic. Then we analyze the active research areas. Specifically, after discussing the wireless-network technologies, we analyze four successful ad hoc networking paradigms, mesh networks, opportunistic networks, vehicular networks, and sensor networks that emerged from the MANET world. We also present an emerging research direction in the multi-hop ad hoc networking field: people centric networking, triggered by the increasing penetration of the smartphones in everyday life, which is generating a people-centric revolution in computing and communications

Opportunistic Networking for Improving the Energy Efficiency of Multi-Hop Cellular Networks

Relaying technologies can help address the capacity and energy-efficiency challenges faced by cellular networks as a result of the rapid increase in mobile data consumption. A nonnegligible portion of such consumption corresponds to delay tolerant services. This delay tolerance offers the possibility for opportunistic networking to exploit contact opportunities between mobile devices in order to reduce the impact of data traffic on the cellular capacity and energy-efficiency without sacrificing the end-user quality of service. In this context, this paper investigates the use of opportunistic forwarding in MCNMR (Multi-hop Cellular Networks with Mobile Relays) to reduce energy consumption in the case of delay tolerant services. The study proposes to exploit context information provided at a low cost by the cellular infrastructure to efficiently select the forwarding node in a two-hop MCN-MR scenario. The proposed solution results in significant energy savings compared to traditional single-hop cellular communications and other forwarding solutions reported in the literatureThis work is supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds (TEC201126109),and the Local Government of Valencia with reference ACIF/2010/161 and BEFPI/2012/06

Socio-economic aware data forwarding in mobile sensing networks and systems

The vision for smart sustainable cities is one whereby urban sensing is core to optimising city operation which in turn improves citizen contentment. Wireless Sensor Networks are envisioned to become pervasive form of data collection and analysis for smart cities but deployment of millions of inter-connected sensors in a city can be cost-prohibitive. Given the ubiquity and ever-increasing capabilities of sensor-rich mobile devices, Wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Phones (WSN-MP) provide a highly flexible and ready-made wireless infrastructure for future smart cities. In a WSN-MP, mobile phones not only generate the sensing data but also relay the data using cellular communication or short range opportunistic communication. The largest challenge here is the efficient transmission of potentially huge volumes of sensor data over sometimes meagre or faulty communications networks in a cost-effective way. This thesis investigates distributed data forwarding schemes in three types of WSN-MP: WSN with mobile sinks (WSN-MS), WSN with mobile relays (WSN-HR) and Mobile Phone Sensing Systems (MPSS). For these dynamic WSN-MP, realistic models are established and distributed algorithms are developed for efficient network performance including data routing and forwarding, sensing rate control and and pricing. This thesis also considered realistic urban sensing issues such as economic incentivisation and demonstrates how social network and mobility awareness improves data transmission. Through simulations and real testbed experiments, it is shown that proposed algorithms perform better than state-of-the-art schemes.Open Acces

Store, carry and forward for energy efficiency in multi-hop cellular networks with mobile relays

Abstract The wide scale adoption of smartphones is boosting cellular data traffic with the consequent capacity constraints of cellular systems and increase in energy consumption. A significant portion of cellular data traffic can be deemed as delay tolerant. Such tolerance offers possibilities for designing novel communications and networking solutions that can accommodate the delay tolerant cellular data traffic while reducing their impact on the overall cellular capacity and energy consumption. In this context, this work studies the use of opportunistic store, carry and forward techniques in Multi-Hop Cellular Networks (MCN) to reduce energy consumption for delay tolerant traffic. The study focuses on two-hop MCN networks using mobile relays (MCN-MR), and identifies the optimum mobile relay location and the location from which the relay should start forwarding the information to the cellular base station in order to minimize the overall energy consumption. The study shows that the use of opportunistic store, carry and forward techniques in MCN-MR can significantly reduce energy consumption compared to other solutions, including traditional single-hop cellular systems or direct contact store, carry and forward solutions.This work is supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds (TEC2011–26109)and the Local Government of Valencia with reference ACIF/2010/161 and BEFPI/2012/06