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

Improving Multicast Communications Over Wireless Mesh Networks

In wireless mesh networks (WMNs) the traditional approach to shortest path tree based multicasting is to cater for the needs of the poorest performingnode i.e. the maximum permitted multicast line rate is limited to the lowest line rate used by the individual Child nodes on a branch. In general, this meansfixing the line rate to its minimum value and fixing the transmit power to its maximum permitted value. This simplistic approach of applying a single multicast rate for all nodes in the multicast group results in a sub-optimal trade-off between the mean network throughput and coverage area that does not allow for high bandwidth multimedia applications to be supported. By relaxing this constraint and allowing multiple line rates to be used, the mean network throughput can be improved. This thesis presents two methods that aim to increase the mean network throughput through the use of multiple line rates by the forwarding nodes. This is achieved by identifying the Child nodes responsible for reducing the multicast group rate. The first method identifies specific locations for the placement of relay nodes which allows for higher multicast branch line rates to be used. The second method uses a power control algorithm to tune the transmit power to allow for higher multicast branch line rates. The use of power control also helps to reduce the interference caused to neighbouring nodes.Through extensive computer simulation it can be shown that these two methods can lead to a four-fold gain in the mean network throughput undertypical WMN operating conditions compared with the single line rate case

Flow Allocation for Maximum Throughput and Bounded Delay on Multiple Disjoint Paths for Random Access Wireless Multihop Networks

In this paper, we consider random access, wireless, multi-hop networks, with multi-packet reception capabilities, where multiple flows are forwarded to the gateways through node disjoint paths. We explore the issue of allocating flow on multiple paths, exhibiting both intra- and inter-path interference, in order to maximize average aggregate flow throughput (AAT) and also provide bounded packet delay. A distributed flow allocation scheme is proposed where allocation of flow on paths is formulated as an optimization problem. Through an illustrative topology it is shown that the corresponding problem is non-convex. Furthermore, a simple, but accurate model is employed for the average aggregate throughput achieved by all flows, that captures both intra- and inter-path interference through the SINR model. The proposed scheme is evaluated through Ns2 simulations of several random wireless scenarios. Simulation results reveal that, the model employed, accurately captures the AAT observed in the simulated scenarios, even when the assumption of saturated queues is removed. Simulation results also show that the proposed scheme achieves significantly higher AAT, for the vast majority of the wireless scenarios explored, than the following flow allocation schemes: one that assigns flows on paths on a round-robin fashion, one that optimally utilizes the best path only, and another one that assigns the maximum possible flow on each path. Finally, a variant of the proposed scheme is explored, where interference for each link is approximated by considering its dominant interfering nodes only.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog