EZ-AG: Structure-free data aggregation in MANETs using push-assisted self-repelling random walks

This paper describes EZ-AG, a structure-free protocol for duplicate insensitive data aggregation in MANETs. The key idea in EZ-AG is to introduce a token that performs a self-repelling random walk in the network and aggregates information from nodes when they are visited for the first time. A self-repelling random walk of a token on a graph is one in which at each step, the token moves to a neighbor that has been visited least often. While self-repelling random walks visit all nodes in the network much faster than plain random walks, they tend to slow down when most of the nodes are already visited. In this paper, we show that a single step push phase at each node can significantly speed up the aggregation and eliminate this slow down. By doing so, EZ-AG achieves aggregation in only O(N) time and messages. In terms of overhead, EZ-AG outperforms existing structure-free data aggregation by a factor of at least log(N) and achieves the lower bound for aggregation message overhead. We demonstrate the scalability and robustness of EZ-AG using ns-3 simulations in networks ranging from 100 to 4000 nodes under different mobility models and node speeds. We also describe a hierarchical extension for EZ-AG that can produce multi-resolution aggregates at each node using only O(NlogN) messages, which is a poly-logarithmic factor improvement over existing techniques

Modeling and simulation of routing protocol for ad hoc networks combining queuing network analysis and ANT colony algorithms

The field of Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) has gained an important part of the interest of researchers and become very popular in last few years. MANETs can operate without fixed infrastructure and can survive rapid changes in the network topology. They can be studied formally as graphs in which the set of edges varies in time. The main method for evaluating the performance of MANETs is simulation. Our thesis presents a new adaptive and dynamic routing algorithm for MANETs inspired by the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithms in combination with network delay analysis. Ant colony optimization algorithms have all been inspired by a specific foraging behavior of ant colonies which are able to find, if not the shortest, at least a very good path connecting the colony’s nest with a source of food. Our evaluation of MANETs is based on the evaluation of the mean End-to-End delay to send a packet from source to destination node through a MANET. We evaluated the mean End-to-End delay as one of the most important performance evaluation metrics in computer networks. Finally, we evaluate our proposed ant algorithm by a comparative study with respect to one of the famous On-Demand (reactive) routing protocols called Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocol. The evaluation shows that, the ant algorithm provides a better performance by reducing the mean End-to-End delay than the AODV algorithm. We investigated various simulation scenarios with different node density and pause times. Our new algorithm gives good results under certain conditions such as, increasing the pause time and decreasing node density. The scenarios that are applied for evaluating our routing algorithm have the following assumptions: 2-D rectangular area, no obstacles, bi-directional links, fixed number of nodes operate for the whole simulation time and nodes movements are performed according to the Random Waypoint Mobility (RWM) or the Boundless Simulation Area Mobility (BSAM) model. KEYWORDS: Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET), Queuing Network Analysis, Routing Algorithms, Mobility Models, Hybrid Simulation

Topics in access, storage, and sensor networks

In the first part of this dissertation, Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) and IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet Passive Optical Network (ETON), two access networking standards, are studied. We study the impact of two parameters of the DOCSIS protocol and derive the probability of message collision in the 802.3ah device discovery scheme. We survey existing bandwidth allocation schemes for EPONs, derive the average grant size in one such scheme, and study the performance of the shortest-job-first heuristic. In the second part of this dissertation, we study networks of mobile sensors. We make progress towards an architecture for disconnected collections of mobile sensors. We propose a new design abstraction called tours which facilitates the combination of mobility and communication into a single design primitive and enables the system of sensors to reorganize into desirable topologies alter failures. We also initiate a study of computation in mobile sensor networks. We study the relationship between two distributed computational models of mobile sensor networks: population protocols and self-similar functions. We define the notion of a self-similar predicate and show when it is computable by a population protocol. Transition graphs of population protocols lead its to the consideration of graph powers. We consider the direct product of graphs and its new variant which we call the lexicographic direct product (or the clique product). We show that invariants concerning transposable walks in direct graph powers and transposable independent sets in graph families generated by the lexicographic direct product are uncomputable. The last part of this dissertation makes contributions to the area of storage systems. We propose a sequential access detect ion and prefetching scheme and a dynamic cache sizing scheme for large storage systems. We evaluate the cache sizing scheme theoretically and through simulations. We compute the expected hit ratio of our and competing schemes and bound the expected size of our dynamic cache sufficient to obtain an optimal hit ratio. We also develop a stand-alone simulator for studying our proposed scheme and integrate it with an empirically validated disk simulator

Signaling and Reciprocity:Robust Decentralized Information Flows in Social, Communication, and Computer Networks

Complex networks exist for a number of purposes. The neural, metabolic and food networks ensure our survival, while the social, economic, transportation and communication networks allow us to prosper. Independently of the purposes and particularities of the physical embodiment of the networks, one of their fundamental functions is the delivery of information from one part of the network to another. Gossip and diseases diffuse in the social networks, electrochemical signals propagate in the neural networks and data packets travel in the Internet. Engineering networks for robust information flows is a challenging task. First, the mechanism through which the network forms and changes its topology needs to be defined. Second, within a given topology, the information must be routed to the appropriate recipients. Third, both the network formation and the routing mechanisms need to be robust against a wide spectrum of failures and adversaries. Fourth, the network formation, routing and failure recovery must operate under the resource constraints, either intrinsic or extrinsic to the network. Finally, the autonomously operating parts of the network must be incentivized to contribute their resources to facilitate the information flows. This thesis tackles the above challenges within the context of several types of networks: 1) peer-to-peer overlays – computers interconnected over the Internet to form an overlay in which participants provide various services to one another, 2) mobile ad-hoc networks – mobile nodes distributed in physical space communicating wirelessly with the goal of delivering data from one part of the network to another, 3) file-sharing networks – networks whose participants interconnect over the Internet to exchange files, 4) social networks – humans disseminating and consuming information through the network of social relationships. The thesis makes several contributions. Firstly, we propose a general algorithm, which given a set of nodes embedded in an arbitrary metric space, interconnects them into a network that efficiently routes information. We apply the algorithm to the peer-to-peer overlays and experimentally demonstrate its high performance, scalability as well as resilience to continuous peer arrivals and departures. We then shift our focus to the problem of the reliability of routing in the peer-to-peer overlays. Each overlay peer has limited resources and when they are exhausted this ultimately leads to delayed or lost overlay messages. All the solutions addressing this problem rely on message redundancy, which significantly increases the resource costs of fault-tolerance. We propose a bandwidth-efficient single-path Forward Feedback Protocol (FFP) for overlay message routing in which successfully delivered messages are followed by a feedback signal to reinforce the routing paths. Internet testbed evaluation shows that FFP uses 2-5 times less network bandwidth than the existing protocols relying on message redundancy, while achieving comparable fault-tolerance levels under a variety of failure scenarios. While the Forward Feedback Protocol is robust to message loss and delays, it is vulnerable to malicious message injection. We address this and other security problems by proposing Castor, a variant of FFP for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). In Castor, we use the same general mechanism as in FFP; each time a message is routed, the routing path is either enforced or weakened by the feedback signal depending on whether the routing succeeded or not. However, unlike FFP, Castor employs cryptographic mechanisms for ensuring the integrity and authenticity of the messages. We compare Castor to four other MANET routing protocols. Despite Castor's simplicity, it achieves up to 40% higher packet delivery rates than the other protocols and recovers at least twice as fast as the other protocols in a wide range of attacks and failure scenarios. Both of our protocols, FFP and Castor, rely on simple signaling to improve the routing robustness in peer-to-peer and mobile ad-hoc networks. Given the success of the signaling mechanism in shaping the information flows in these two types of networks, we examine if signaling plays a similar crucial role in the on-line social networks. We characterize the propagation of URLs in the social network of Twitter. The data analysis uncovers several statistical regularities in the user activity, the social graph, the structure of the URL cascades as well as the communication and signaling dynamics. Based on these results, we propose a propagation model that accurately predicts which users are likely to mention which URLs. We outline a number of applications where the social network information flow modelling would be crucial: content ranking and filtering, viral marketing and spam detection. Finally, we consider the problem of freeriding in peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, when users can download data from others, but never reciprocate by uploading. To address the problem, we propose a variant of the BitTorrent system in which two peers are only allowed to connect if their owners know one another in the real world. When the users know which other users their BitTorrent client connects to, they are more likely to cooperate. The social network becomes the content distribution network and the freeriding problem is solved by leveraging the social norms and reciprocity to stabilize cooperation rather than relying on technological means. Our extensive simulation shows that the social network topology is an efficient and scalable content distribution medium, while at the same time provides robustness to freeriding

Performance evaluation of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks over high speed environment using NCTUns

Català: Cada any aproximadament un milió dues-centes mil persones moren en accidents de trànsit. D'aquesta dada es desprèn que els accidents de trànsit són la quarta causa de mortalitat al món. Degut a això, un gran nombre de governs i els majors fabricants de vehicles del món estan invertint temps i diners en recerca i desenvolupament per millorar la seguretat a les carreteres. Amb aquest objectiu, apareix el concepte de VANET: Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork. Una VANET està basada en vehicles i estacions base intel·ligents que comparteixen informació a través de comunicacions inalàmbriques. Aquest intercanvi de dades podria tenir un gran impacte en la seguretat viària i la qualitat en la conducció però a més a més seria una nova font d' entreteniment mòbil. La millora en seguretat implicaria una reducció en el nombre d'accidents i les comunicacions inalàmbriques usades en mobilitat permetrien una optimització del transport. L'evolució de les VANETs en els últims anys i les seves aplicacions útils a les carreteres són les principals raons per dur a terme aquest projecte. El gran suport a aquest tipus de xarxes inalàmbriques sembla indicar que les VANETs són les xarxes del futur en entorns mòbils. En relació al projecte, el primer problema observat és que el protocol que s'usa específicament en VANETs (802.11p) només està disponible en pocs simuladors de xarxa i està en fase de desenvolupament. Per tant, la majoria de les funcions no estan implementades i això fa que el protocol no sigui madur. En conseqüència, es va triar un protocol àmpliament usat com és 802.11b per fer les proves en el simulador NCTUns. L?objectiu del projecte és avaluar el funcionament de VANETs usant el protocol 802.11b i el protocol d?encaminament AODV en un escenari d?autopista. Ajustant diferents paràmetres com el nombre de cotxes, la seva velocitat i el seu rang de cobertura és possible obtenir variacions en les mesures de pèrdues, throughput i retard extrem-a-extrem en la xarxa. El resultat final és que les mesures permeten saber quines són les comunicacions que es produeixen a la xarxa per cadascuna de les configuracions i la seva incidència en les condicions de conducció.Castellano: Cada año cerca de un millón doscientas mil personas fallecen en accidentes de tráfico. De este dato se desprende que los accidentes de tráfico son la cuarta causa de mortalidad en el mundo. Debido a esto, un gran número de gobiernos y los mayores fabricantes de vehículos del mundo están invirtiendo tiempo y dinero en investigación y desarrollo para mejorar la seguridad en las carreteras. Con este objetivo, aparece el concepto de VANET: Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork. Una VANET se basa en vehículos y estaciones base inteligentes que comparten información por medio de comunicaciones inalámbricas. Este intercambio de datos podría tener un gran impacto en la seguridad vial y en la calidad de la conducción pero además sería una nueva fuente de entretenimiento móvil. La mejora en la seguridad implicaría una reducción en el número de accidentes y las comunicaciones inalámbricas utilizadas en movilidad permitirían optimizar el transporte. La evolución de las VANETs en los últimos años y sus aplicaciones útiles en las carreteras son las principales razones para llevar a cabo este proyecto. El gran apoyo a este tipo de redes inalámbricas parece indicar que las VANETs son las redes del futuro en entornos móviles. En relación al proyecto, el primer problema observado es que el protocolo específicamente utilizado en VANETs (802.11p) sólo está disponible en pocos simuladores de red y se encuentra en fase de desarrollo. Por lo tanto, la mayoría de funciones no están implementadas y esto hace que el protocolo no sea maduro. En consecuencia, se escogió un protocolo ampliamente utilizado como es 802.11b para realizar las pruebas en el simulador NCTUns. El objetivo del proyecto es evaluar el funcionamiento de VANETs utilizando el protocolo 802.11b y el protocolo de encaminamiento AODV en un escenario de autopista. Ajustando diferentes parámetros como el número de coches, su velocidad y su rango de cobertura es posible obtener variaciones en las medidas de pérdidas, throughput y retardo extremo-a-extremo en la red. El resultado final es que las medidas permiten saber cuáles son las comunicaciones que se producen en la red para cada una de las configuraciones y su incidencia en las condiciones de conducción.English: Every year about 1.2 million people die because of traffic accidents [1]. This means that traffic accidents are the fourth cause of mortality in the world. Therefore, several governments and the most important car manufacturers are investing time and money on research and development in order to improve road safety. At this respect, appears the concept of VANET: Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork. A VANET is based on smart cars and base-stations that share information via wireless communications. This interchange of data may have a great impact on safety and driving quality but also could be another source of mobile entertainment. This improvement on safety would imply reducing the number of accidents. In addition, the use of wireless communications in mobility would lead to an optimization of transport. The evolution of VANETs in the last years and their useful applications on the road has been the main reason to develop this project. The great support of many people to this type of wireless networks suggests that VANETs are the networks of the future in mobile environments. Regarding the project, the first problem encountered is that the network protocol specially designed for VANETs, IEEE 802.11p, is only available in a few of the network simulators and is on phase of development. This fact means that most of the functions are not implemented so it cannot be considered as a mature protocol. As a consequence, a widely used protocol as IEEE 802.11b was chosen and all the tests were performed on NCTUns simulator. So the purpose of this project is to evaluate the performance of VANETs by using 802.11b protocol and AODV routing protocol in a highway scenario. By adjusting different parameters like number of cars, their speed and their range of coverage, variations on measures of loss ratio, throughput and end-to- end delay were detected on the network. Finally, the measures help to know about network communications for each of the cases and their incidence on driving conditions

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Being infrastructure-less and without central administration control, wireless ad-hoc networking is playing a more and more important role in extending the coverage of traditional wireless infrastructure (cellular networks, wireless LAN, etc). This book includes state-of the-art techniques and solutions for wireless ad-hoc networks. It focuses on the following topics in ad-hoc networks: vehicular ad-hoc networks, security and caching, TCP in ad-hoc networks and emerging applications. It is targeted to provide network engineers and researchers with design guidelines for large scale wireless ad hoc networks

Non-Hierarchical Networks for Censorship-Resistant Personal Communication.

The Internet promises widespread access to the world’s collective information and fast communication among people, but common government censorship and spying undermines this potential. This censorship is facilitated by the Internet’s hierarchical structure. Most traffic flows through routers owned by a small number of ISPs, who can be secretly coerced into aiding such efforts. Traditional crypographic defenses are confusing to common users. This thesis advocates direct removal of the underlying heirarchical infrastructure instead, replacing it with non-hierarchical networks. These networks lack such chokepoints, instead requiring would-be censors to control a substantial fraction of the participating devices—an expensive proposition. We take four steps towards the development of practical non-hierarchical networks. (1) We first describe Whisper, a non-hierarchical mobile ad hoc network (MANET) architecture for personal communication among friends and family that resists censorship and surveillance. At its core are two novel techniques, an efficient routing scheme based on the predictability of human locations anda variant of onion-routing suitable for decentralized MANETs. (2) We describe the design and implementation of Shout, a MANET architecture for censorship-resistant, Twitter-like public microblogging. (3) We describe the Mason test, amethod used to detect Sybil attacks in ad hoc networks in which trusted authorities are not available. (4) We characterize and model the aggregate behavior of Twitter users to enable simulation-based study of systems like Shout. We use our characterization of the retweet graph to analyze a novel spammer detection technique for Shout.PhDComputer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107314/1/drbild_1.pd

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