DTN routing for quasi‐deterministic networks with application to LEO constellations

We propose a novel DTN routing algorithm, called DQN, specifically designed for quasi‐deterministic networks with an application to satellite constellations. We demonstrate that our proposal efficiently forwards the information over a satellite network derived from the Orbcomm topology while keeping a low replication overhead. We compare our algorithm against other well‐known DTN routing schemes and show that we obtain the lowest replication ratio with a delivery ratio of the same order of magnitude than a reference theoretical optimal routing. We also analyze the impact of terrestrial gateways density and analyze DQN performances in heterogeneous cases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An optimized trusted‐cluster–based routing in disruption‐tolerant network using experiential learning model

Disruption‐tolerant network (DTN) implementation is subject to many routing constraints like limited knowledge of the network and intermittent connections with no end‐to‐end path existence. In this paper, the researchers propose trusted‐cluster–based routing protocol (TCR) for routing in DTN. TCR uses the experiential learning model that integrates neural network‐based bipolar sigmoid activation function to form trusted‐cluster DTN. TCR works in two phases: firstly to form a trusted‐cluster and secondly to identify cluster heads to direct network traffic through them. After the formation of the trusted‐cluster, a cluster head is chosen for a set period, thus instigating stability in the network. These trust values are attached to the node's route cache to make competitive routing decisions by relaying a message to the other trusted intermediate nodes only. With negative trust value, any node is deprived of participation in the network. This way, TCR eliminates malicious or selfish nodes to participate in the DTN network and minimizes the number of messages forwarded in a densely populated DTN. Also, this implementation conserves sufficient buffer memory to reach the destined node. The TCR's performance with other DTN routing schemes, namely, epidemic and trust‐based routing, is compared using multiple simulations runs. The proposed work is verified using mobility traces from Community Resource for Archiving Wireless Data At Dartmouth, and the experimental result shows the elimination of selfish nodes participating in the DTN. The simulation result shows an increase of 19% in message delivery by forwarding only to a trusted intermediate node possible.     

Tree‐based channel assignment schemes for multi‐channel wireless sensor networks

Many sensor node platforms used for establishing wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can support multiple radio channels for wireless communication. Therefore, rather than using a single radio channel for whole network, multiple channels can be utilized in a sensor network simultaneously to decrease overall network interference, which may help increase the aggregate network throughput and decrease packet collisions and delays. This method, however, requires appropriate schemes to be used for assigning channels to nodes for multi‐channel communication in the network. Because data generated by sensor nodes are usually delivered to the sink node using routing trees, a tree‐based channel assignment scheme is a natural approach for assigning channels in a WSN. We present two fast tree‐based channel assignment schemes (called bottom up channel assignment and neighbor count‐based channel assignment) for multi‐channel WSNs. We also propose a new interference metric that is used by our algorithms in making decisions. We validated and evaluated our proposed schemes via extensive simulation experiments. Our simulation results show that our algorithms can decrease interference in a network, thereby increasing performance, and that our algorithms are good alternatives for static channel assignment in WSNs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive end‐to‐end RTO calculation framework for DTNs with scheduled connectivity

In this work, we propose an end‐to‐end retransmission framework for dynamically calculating efficient retransmission time‐out intervals in delay‐tolerant networks (DTNs) with scheduled connectivity. The proposed framework combines deterministic and statistical information about the network state to calculate worst‐case estimates about the expected round trip times. Such information includes connectivity schedules, convergence layer protocols specifics, communication link characteristics, and network statistics about the maximum expected packet error rates and storage congestion. We detail the implementation of the proposed framework within the end‐to‐end application data conditioning layer proposed for the DTN architecture, realized by the Delay‐Tolerant Payload Conditioning protocol, as part of the Interplanetary Overlay Network–DTN reference implementation, and evaluate its performance in a complex deep‐space emulation scenario in our DTN testbed. Our results show that our approach achieves great accuracy in round‐trip time estimations and, therefore, faster retransmissions of lost data, in comparison to the statically configured retransmission mechanism of the original Delay‐Tolerant Payload Conditioning protocol. As a result, in‐order data reception rate and storage requirements on the receiver side are significantly improved, at minimum or even zero extra cost in transmission overhead due to duplicate transmissions.     

Homing‐pigeon‐based messaging: multiple pigeon‐assisted delivery in delay‐tolerant networks

In this paper, we consider the applications of delay‐tolerant networks (DTNs), where the nodes in a network are located in separated areas, and in each separated area, there exists (at least) an anchor node that provides regional network coverage for the nearby nodes. The anchor nodes are responsible for collecting and distributing messages for the nodes in the vicinity. This work proposes to use a set of messengers (named pigeons) that move around the network to deliver messages among multiple anchor nodes. Each source node (anchor node or Internet access point) owns multiple dedicated pigeons, and each pigeon takes a round trip starting from its home (i.e., the source) through the destination anchor nodes and then returns home, disseminating the messages on its way. We named this as a homing‐pigeon‐based messaging (HoPM) scheme. The HoPM scheme is different from the prior schemes in that each messenger is completely dedicated to its home node for providing messaging service. We obtained the average message delay of HoPM scheme in DTN through theoretical analysis with three different pigeon scheduling schemes. The analytical model was validated by simulations. We also studied the effects of several key parameters on the system performance and compared the results with previous solutions. The results allowed us to better understand the impacts of different scheduling schemes on the system performance of HoPM and demonstrated that our proposed scheme outperforms the previous ones. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A green cluster‐based routing scheme for large‐scale wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), clustering has been shown to be an efficient technique to improve scalability and network lifetime. In clustered networks, clustering creates unequal load distribution among cluster heads (CHs) and cluster member (CM) nodes. As a result, the entire network is subject to premature death because of the deficient active nodes within the network. In this paper, we present clustering‐based routing algorithms that can balance out the trade‐off between load distribution and network lifetime “green cluster‐based routing scheme.” This paper proposes a new energy‐aware green cluster‐based routing algorithm to preventing premature death of large‐scale dense WSNs. To deal with the uncertainty present in network information, a fuzzy rule‐based node classification model is proposed for clustering. Its primary benefits are flexibility in selecting effective CHs, reliability in distributing CHs overload among the other nodes, and reducing communication overhead and cluster formation time in highly dense areas. In addition, we propose a routing scheme that balances the load among sensors. The proposed scheme is evaluated through simulations to compare our scheme with the existing algorithms available in the literature. The numerical results show the relevance and improved efficiency of our scheme.     

Implementation of depth‐based routing and its enhancement in AquaSim–Next Generation for underwater wireless sensor networks

In the last decade, underwater wireless sensor networks have been widely studied because of their peculiar aspects that distinguish them from common terrestrial wireless networks. Their applications range from environmental monitoring to military defense. The definition of efficient routing protocols in underwater sensor networks is a challenging topic of research because of the intrinsic characteristics of these networks, such as the need of handling the node mobility and the difficulty in balancing the energy consumed by the nodes. Depth‐based routing protocol is an opportunistic routing protocol for underwater sensor networks, which provides good performance both under high and low node mobility scenarios. The main contribution of our work is presenting a novel simulator for studying depth‐based routing protocol and its variants as well as novel routing protocols. Our simulator is based on AquaSim–Next Generation, which is a specialized tool for studying underwater networks. With our work, we improve the state of the art of underwater routing protocol simulators by implementing, among other features, a detailed cross‐layer communication and an accurate model of the operational modes of acoustic modem and their energy consumption. The simulator is open source and freely downloadable. Moreover, we propose a novel and completely distributed routing protocol, named residual energy–depth‐based routing. It takes into account the residual energy at the nodes' batteries to select the forwarder nodes and improve the network lifetime by providing a more uniform energy consumption among them. We compare its performance with that of depth‐based routing protocol and a receiver‐based routing protocol implementing a probabilistic opportunistic forwarding scheme.     

WCDS‐DCR: an energy‐efficient data‐centric routing scheme for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) typically consist of a large number of battery‐constrained sensors often deployed in harsh environments with little to no human control, thereby necessitating scalable and energy‐efficient techniques. This paper proposes a scalable and energy‐efficient routing scheme, called WCDS‐DCR, suitable for these WSNs. WCDS‐DCR is a fully distributed, data‐centric, routing technique that makes use of an underlying clustering structure induced by the construction of WCDS (Weakly Connected Dominating Set) to prolong network lifetime. It aims at extending network lifetime through the use of data aggregation (based on the elimination of redundant data packets) by some particular nodes. It also utilizes both the energy availability information and the distances (in number of hops) from sensors to the sink in order to make hop‐by‐hop, energy‐aware, routing decisions. Simulation results show that our solution is scalable, and outperforms existing schemes in terms of network lifetime. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Jitter‐minimized reliability‐maximized management of networks

We propose a joint optimization network management framework for quality‐of‐service (QoS) routing with resource allocation. Our joint optimization framework provides a convenient way of maximizing the reliability or minimizing the jitter delay of paths. Data traffic is sensitive to droppage at buffers, while it can tolerate jitter delay. On the other hand, multimedia traffic can tolerate loss but it is very sensitive to jitter delay. Depending on the type of data, our scheme provides a convenient way of selecting the parameters which result in either reliability maximization or jitter minimization. We solve the optimization problem for a GPS network and provide the optimal solutions. We find the values of control parameters which control the type of optimization performed. We use our analytical results in a multi‐objective QoS routing algorithm. Finally, we provide insights into our optimization framework using simulations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hop‐by‐hop delay‐constrained routing algorithm with explicit loop avoidance and backup routing information

QoS Routing is crucial for QoS provisioning in high‐speed networks. In general, QoS routing can be classified into two paradigms: source routing and hop‐by‐hop routing. In source routing, the entire path to the destination node of a communication request is locally computed at the source node based on the global state that it maintains, which does not scale well to large networks. In hop‐by‐hop routing, a path‐selecting process is shared among intermediate nodes between the source node and the destination node, which can largely improve the protocol scalability. In this paper, we present the design of hop‐by‐hop routing with backup route information such that each intermediate node can recursively update the best known feasible path, if possible, by collectively utilizing the routing information gathered thus far and the information that it locally stores. Such a route is kept as a backup route and its path cost is used as a reference to guide the subsequent routing process to search for a lower‐cost constrained path and avoid performance degradation. In this way, the information gathered is maximally utilized for improved performance. We prove the correctness of our presented algorithm and deduce its worst message complexity to be O(∣V∣²), where ∣V∣ is the number of network nodes. Simulation results indicate that, however, the designed algorithm requires much fewer messages on average. Therefore it scales well with respect to the network size. Moreover, simulation results demonstrate that the cost performance of our algorithm is near‐optimal. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A gradient‐based multiple‐path routing protocol for low duty‐cycled wireless sensor networks

Routing in a low duty‐cycled wireless sensor network (WSN) has attracted much attention recently because of the challenge that low duty‐cycled sleep scheduling brings to the design of efficient distributed routing protocols for such networks. In a low duty‐cycled WSN, a big problem is how to design an efficient distributed routing protocol, which uses only local network state information while achieving low end‐to‐end (E2E) packet delivery delay and also high packet delivery efficiency. In this paper, we study low duty‐cycled WSNs wherein sensor nodes adopt pseudorandom sleep scheduling for energy saving. The objective of this paper is to design an efficient distributed routing protocol with low overhead. For this purpose, we design a simple but efficient hop‐by‐hop routing protocol, which integrates the ideas of multipath routing and gradient‐based routing for improved routing performance. We conduct extensive simulations, and the results demonstrate the high performance of the proposed protocol in terms of E2E packet delivery latency and packet delivery efficiency as compared with existing protocols. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐topology routing based egress selection approach to achieve hybrid intra‐AS and inter‐AS traffic engineering

Hot‐potato routing is a border gateway protocol policy that selects the ‘closest’ egress router in terms of interior gateway protocol cost. This policy imposes inherent interactions between intra‐AS (Autonomous System) and inter‐AS traffic engineering. In light of this observation, we present a hybrid intra‐AS and inter‐AS traffic engineering scheme named egress selection based upon hot potato routing. This scheme involves link weight optimization, which can not only minimize the time that IP (Internet Protocol) packets travel across the network by assigning specified egress router but also balance the load among the internal links of the transit network. Egress selection based upon hot potato routing also incorporates multi‐topology routing technique to address the problem that one set of link weights might not guarantee specified egress routers. Accordingly, we formulate the link weights optimization problem using multi‐topology routing as a mixed integer linear programming model. And we present a new heuristic algorithm to make the problem tractable. Numerical results show that only a few topologies are needed to guarantee specified egress router, and maximum link utilization is also reduced. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed Routing Based on Minimum End‐to‐End Delay for OFDMA Backhaul Mobile Mesh Networks

In this paper, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)‐based minimum end‐to‐end delay (MED) distributed routing scheme for mobile backhaul wireless mesh networks is proposed. The proposed scheme selects routing paths based on OFDMA subcarrier synchronization control, subcarrier availability, and delay. In the proposed scheme, OFDMA is used to transmit frames between mesh routers using type‐I hybrid automatic repeat request over multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Compared with other distributed routing algorithms, such as most forward within radius R, farthest neighbor routing, nearest neighbor routing, and nearest with forwarding progress, simulation results show that the proposed MED routing can reduce end‐to‐end delay and support highly reliable routing using only local information of neighbor nodes.     

Directional routing and scheduling for green vehicular delay tolerant networks

The vehicle delay tolerant networks (DTNs) make opportunistic communications by utilizing the mobility of vehicles, where the node makes delay-tolerant based “carry and forward” mechanism to deliver the packets. The routing schemes for vehicle networks are challenging for varied network environment. Most of the existing DTN routing including routing for vehicular DTNs mainly focus on metrics such as delay, hop count and bandwidth, etc. A new focus in green communications is with the goal of saving energy by optimizing network performance and ultimately protecting the natural climate. The energy–efficient communication schemes designed for vehicular networks are imminent because of the pollution, energy consumption and heat dissipation. In this paper, we present a directional routing and scheduling scheme (DRSS) for green vehicle DTNs by using Nash Q-learning approach that can optimize the energy efficiency with the considerations of congestion, buffer and delay. Our scheme solves the routing and scheduling problem as a learning process by geographic routing and flow control toward the optimal direction. To speed up the learning process, our scheme uses a hybrid method with forwarding and replication according to traffic pattern. The DRSS algorithm explores the possible strategies, and then exploits the knowledge obtained to adapt its strategy and achieve the desired overall objective when considering the stochastic non-cooperative game in on-line multi-commodity routing situations. The simulation results of a vehicular DTN with predetermined mobility model show DRSS achieves good energy efficiency with learning ability, which can guarantee the delivery ratio within the delay bound.     

Performance Evaluation of a Power Management Scheme for Disruption Tolerant Network

Disruption tolerant network (DTN) is characterized by frequent partitions and intermittent connectivity. Power management issue in such networks is challenging. Existing power management schemes for wireless networks cannot be directly applied to DTNs because they assume the networks are well-connected. Since the network connectivity opportunities are rare, any power management scheme deployed in DTNs should not worsen the existing network connectivity. In this paper, we design a power management scheme called context-aware power management scheme (CAPM) for DTNs. Our CAPM scheme has an adaptive on period feature that allows it to achieve high delivery ratio and low delivery latency when used with Prophet, a recently proposed DTN routing scheme. Via simulations, we evaluate the performance of the CAPM scheme when used with the Prophet routing scheme in different scenarios e.g. different traffic load, node speeds and sleep patterns. Our evaluation results indicate that the CAPM scheme is very promising in providing energy saving (as high as 80%) without degrading much the data delivery performance.     

Generic prediction assisted single-copy routing in underwater delay tolerant sensor networks

One challenge in delay tolerant networks (DTNs) is efficient routing, as the lack of contemporaneous end-to-end paths makes conventional routing schemes inapplicable. Although many DTN routing protocols have been proposed, they often have two limitations: many protocols are not mobility cognizant, so they only suit specific mobility models and become inefficient when the environment changes; some protocols employ multi-copy replication to accommodate mobility diversity for increased delivery probability or reduced delay, but they usually do not perform well in resource constrained networks. Due to the unique characteristics of underwater sensor networks (UWSNs), efficient DTN routing becomes even more challenging. In this paper, we propose a generic prediction assisted single-copy routing (PASR) scheme that can be instantiated for different mobility models. PASR first collects a short-duration trace with network connectivity information and employs an effective off-line greedy algorithm to characterize the underlying network mobility patterns, depict the features of best routing paths and provide guidance on how to use historical information. Then it instantiates prediction assisted single-copy online routing protocols based on the guidance. As a result, the instantiated protocols are energy efficient and cognizant of the underlying mobility patterns. We demonstrate the advantages of PASR in underwater sensor networks with various mobility models.     

A delay‐centric parallel multi‐path routing protocol for cognitive radio ad hoc networks

In this paper, we develop a delay‐centric parallel multi‐path routing protocol for multi‐hop cognitive radio ad hoc networks. First, we analyze the end‐to‐end delay of multi‐path routing based on queueing theory and present a new dynamic traffic assignment scheme for multi‐path routing with the objective of minimizing end‐to‐end delay, considering both spectrum availability and link data rate. The problem is formulated as a convex problem and solved by a gradient‐based search method to obtain optimal traffic assignments. Furthermore, a heuristic decentralized traffic assignment scheme for multi‐path routing is presented. Then, based on the delay analysis and the 3D conflict graph that captures spectrum opportunity and interference among paths, we present a route discovery and selection scheme. Via extensive NS2‐based simulation, we show that the proposed protocol outperforms the benchmark protocols significantly and achieves the shortest end‐to‐end delay. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DCLRRA: Distributed cross‐layer routing and resource allocation techniques for OFDMA‐based broadband wireless networks

In this study, we develop a fully distributed routing protocol for OFDMA‐based multihop broadband wireless access (BWA) networks such as those of IEEE 802.16j. We refer to this protocol as the DCLRRA protocol. DCLRRA is based on autonomous resource allocation schemes that we also derive in this paper. The routing protocol's selection of the proper resource allocation scheme is based on whether the relay stations (RSs) are nomadic or stationary. While we develop the autonomous resource allocation schemes, we exploit the multi‐user capabilities of the OFDMA physical layer. This allows simultaneous data transmission sessions within the same neighborhood while offering a total elimination of interference between transmitting nodes. The direct result of this strategy is increased throughput with high utilization of the communication channel. We examine our routing technique to show its performance merits through extensive simulations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cross‐layer study for application‐aware multi‐hop cognitive radio networks

Satisfying the different requirements of applications is important in multi‐hop cognitive radio networks, because the spectrum resources change dynamically and the requirements for various applications could be very different. In this paper, we propose new schemes of channel allocation and route selection for real‐time and non‐real‐time applications to tackle this challenge. Our scheme is flexible so that it can adapt to the different application requirements, and it can provide enough throughput while maintaining the packet loss rate and transmission rate requirements. First, we give the network model in a cognitive radio network environment, and show how to calculate the capacity of the route in multi‐hop cognitive radio networks. Second, we formulate optimization problems to fulfill the rate requirements of different applications for each unicast session. We also consider the primary user activities, channel availability, interface and interference constraint. We propose the corresponding routing and channel allocation schemes for different application scenarios. Third, we propose an admission control scheme to study the impact of application requirements for multiple sessions in cognitive radio networks. Finally, we implement simulations to show the performance of our schemes and compare them with existing schemes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Virtual‐coordinate‐based delivery‐guaranteed routing protocol in three‐dimensional wireless sensor networks

Because of the wide range of applications, many geographic routing protocols have been proposed in three‐dimensional (3D) wireless sensor networks. However, all the methods require assistance from a global positioning system (GPS), which is not always available. In this paper, we propose a method of constructing an axis‐based virtual coordinate assignment in 3D wireless sensor networks (ABVCap_3D) that requires no GPS assistance. We also propose a routing protocol based on ABVCap_3D, which guarantees packet delivery in 3D networks. Using simulations, we evaluate the performance of ABVCap_3D routing and other well‐known routing protocols, such as greedy‐random‐greedy routing, greedy‐hull‐greedy routing, and the routing based on axis‐based virtual coordinate assignment in 2D wireless sensor networks (ABVCap routing). Simulations show that ABVCap_3D routing requires significantly relative lower cost for guaranteeing packet delivery in comparison with ABVCap routing. Simulations also demonstrate that ABVCap_3D routing ensures a moderate ratio for routing path length to the shortest (ideal) path length. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.