Improved group-based cooperative caching scheme for mobile ad hoc networks

Data caching is a popular technique that improves data accessibility in wired or wireless networks. However, in mobile ad hoc networks, improvement in access latency and cache hit ratio may diminish because of the mobility and limited cache space of mobile hosts (MHs). In this paper, an improved cooperative caching scheme called group-based cooperative caching (GCC) is proposed to generalize and enhance the performance of most group-based caching schemes. GCC allows MHs and their neighbors to form a group, and exchange a bitmap data directory periodically used for proposed algorithms, such as the process of data discovery, and cache placement and replacement. The goal is to reduce the access latency of data requests and efficiently use available caching space among MH groups. Two optimization techniques are also developed for GCC to reduce computation and communication overheads. The first technique compresses the directories using an aggregate bitmap. The second employs multi-point relays to develop a forwarding node selection scheme to reduce the number of broadcast messages inside the group. Our simulation results show that the optimized GCC yields better results than existing cooperative caching schemes in terms of cache hit ratio, access latency, and average hop count.     

Gossip-based cooperative caching for mobile applications in mobile wireless networks

Cooperative caching is an efficient way to improve the performance of data access in mobile wireless networks, by cache nodes selecting different data items in their limited storage in order to reduce total access delay. With more demands on sharing a video or other data, especially for mobile applications in an Internet-based Mobile Ad Hoc Network, considering the relations among data items in cooperative caching becomes more important than before. However, most of the existing works do not consider these inherent relations among data items, such as the logical, temporal, or spatial relations. In this paper, we present a novel solution, Gossip-based Cooperative Caching (GosCC) to address the cache placement problem, and consider the sequential relation among data items. Each mobile node stores the IDs of data items cached locally and the ID of the data item in use into its progress report. Each mobile node also makes use of these progress reports to determine whether a data item should be cached locally. These progress reports are propagated within the network in a gossip-based way. To improve the user experience, GosCC aims to provide users with an uninterrupted data access service. Simulation results show that GosCC achieves better performance than Benefit-based Data Caching and HybridCache, in terms of average interruption intervals and average interruption times, while sacrificing message cost to a certain degree.     

Fairness of medium access control protocols for multi-hop ad hoc wireless networks

It is an undisputed fact that fairness is an important element of a well-designed medium access control (MAC) protocol for multi-hop ad hoc networks. However, most popular MAC protocols still fail to attain an acceptable level of fairness in media access although several enhancements have been proposed in the past. These proposed enhancements are effective only in limited scenarios. It is our objective in this paper to do the following: (i) analyze the fairness problem; (ii) identify and analyze the three main causes leading to the fairness problem, namely, the lack of synchronization problem (LSP), the double contention areas problem (DCP) and the lack of coordination problem (LCP); (iii) based on the analysis, propose a new MAC protocol named the extended hybrid asynchronous time division multiple access (EHATDMA) as a solution. For better assessment of fairness, we have designed an index named max–min fairness index, which is scenario-independent and reflects the difference between the fair sharing provided by a protocol and the ideal max–min fair sharing. Comprehensive simulations have been carried out to compare the fairness of our protocol with the existing ones. Simulation results show that although the existing protocols employ various enhancements meant to improve the fairness property, most of them are still strongly biased towards throughput when a conflict between throughput and fairness arises. In addition, the fairness performance of these protocols varies widely from one scenario to another. On the other hand, EHATDMA strikes a good balance between throughput and fairness. It delivers a consistently high level of fairness regardless of network topology, traffic load and radio parameters, yet maintains high throughput whenever possible. Our simulation results also reveal that the most important mechanism affecting the fair sharing of radio channels among flows is the non-work-conserving mechanism.     

CODISC: Collaborative and distributed semantic caching for maximizing cache effectiveness in wireless networks

In wireless mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), a mobile node would normally acquire data from a data server through an access point by sending the server a request each time it needs data. To reduce the high costs normally associated with accessing remote servers (i.e., outside the MANET), data caching by the mobile nodes can be employed. Several caching techniques for MANETs have been proposed and implemented, including a cooperative scheme that we recently introduced. It employs a directory-based approach in which submitted queries are cached in the MANET to be used subsequently as indexes to corresponding data items (results). When a request is issued, nodes cooperate to find its answer (if it exists) and send it to the requesting node. In this paper, we extend this scheme by semantically comparing each submitted request with all cached queries. The semantic analysis process includes trimming the request into fragments and joining the answers of these fragments to produce the answer of the request. We study the performance of the proposed system both analytically and experimentally, and prove the advantageous features of the system relative to others in terms of query response time, generated traffic, and hit ratio.     

A cross-layer multi-hop cooperative network architecture for wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper, a novel decentralized cross-layer multi-hop cooperative network architecture is proposed and presented. This cross-layer architecture introduces a new cooperative flooding scheme and two decentralized opportunistic cooperative forwarding mechanisms based on randomized coding, and a Routing Enabled Cooperative Medium Access Control (RECOMAC) protocol that enables cooperative forwarding, while incorporating physical, medium access control (MAC) and routing layers. RECOMAC employs randomized coding to realize cooperative diversity, so that relay selection and actuation mechanisms are alleviated and the MAC costs are reduced. The coded packets are routed in the network via the proposed cooperative forwarding schemes, which opportunistically form cooperative sets within a region, not needing a prior route to be established. Essentially, in the RECOMAC architecture, the routing layer functionality is submerged into the MAC layer to provide seamless cooperative communication, while the messaging overhead to set up routes, select and actuate relays is reduced. We evaluate the performance of RECOMAC in terms of network throughput, delay and MAC and routing overhead, in comparison to the conventional architecture based on the well-known IEEE 802.11 MAC and Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocols. RECOMAC is shown to provide quite significant improvement by an order of magnitude difference in all investigated performance metrics, under a variety of scenarios, considering different network sizes, static and mobile scenarios and networks with multiple flows.     

Cache invalidation strategies for Internet-based vehicular ad hoc networks

Internet-based vehicular ad hoc network (Ivanet) is an emerging technique that combines a wired Internet and a vehicular ad hoc network (Vanet) for developing an ubiquitous communication infrastructure and improving universal information and service accessibility. A key design optimization technique in Ivanets is to cache the frequently accessed data items in a local storage of vehicles. Since vehicles are not critically limited by the storage/memory space and power consumption, selecting proper data items for caching is not very critical. Rather, an important design issue is how to keep the cached copies valid when the original data items are updated. This is essential to provide fast access to valid data for fast moving vehicles. In this paper, we propose a cooperative cache invalidation (CCI) scheme and its enhancement (ECCI) that take advantage of the underlying location management scheme to reduce the number of broadcast operations and the corresponding query delay. We develop an analytical model for CCI and ECCI techniques for fasthand estimate of performance trends and critical design parameters. Then, we modify two prior cache invalidation techniques to work in Ivanets: a poll-each-read (PER) scheme, and an extended asynchronous (EAS) scheme. We compare the performance of four cache invalidation schemes as a function of query interval, cache update interval, and data size through extensive simulation. Our simulation results indicate that the proposed schemes can reduce the query delay up to 69% and increase the cache hit rate up to 57%, and have the lowest communication overhead compared to the prior PER and EAS schemes.     

Updated data dissemination methods for updating old replicas in ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose two updated data dissemination methods to not only reduce the number of accesses to old replicas, but also to improve the data accessibility in ad hoc networks where data items are updated regularly. In the first method, when a mobile host updates a data item, it disseminates the updated data item after the flooding of with invalidation reports. In the second method, two newly connected mobile hosts disseminate updated data items with each other after the flooding with invalidation reports.     

Enhancing data security in ad hoc networks based on multipath routing

An ad hoc network is a self-organizing network of wireless links connecting mobile nodes. The mobile nodes can communicate without an infrastructure. They form an arbitrary topology, where the nodes play the role of routers and are free to move randomly.     

Energy efficient multicast routing in ad hoc wireless networks

In this paper, we discuss the energy efficient multicast problem in ad hoc wireless networks. Each node in the network is assumed to have a fixed level of transmission power. The problem of our concern is: given an ad hoc wireless network and a multicast request, how to find a multicast tree such that the total energy cost of the multicast tree is minimized. We first prove this problem is NP-hard and it is unlikely to have an approximation algorithm with a constant performance ratio of the number of nodes in the network. We then propose an algorithm based on the directed Steiner tree method that has a theoretically guaranteed approximation performance ratio. We also propose two efficient heuristics, node-join-tree (NJT) and tree-join-tree (TJT) algorithms. The NJT algorithm can be easily implemented in a distributed fashion. Extensive simulations have been conducted to compare with other methods and the results have shown significant improvement on energy efficiency of the proposed algorithms.     

RBC-OLSR: Reputation-based clustering OLSR protocol for wireless ad hoc networks

We consider the problem of assuring the trustworthiness (i.e. reliability and robustness) and prolonging the lifetime of wireless ad hoc networks, using the OLSR routing protocol, in the presence of selfish nodes. Assuring the trustworthiness of these networks can be achieved by selecting the most trusted paths, while prolonging the lifetime can be achieved by (1) reducing the number of relay nodes (MPR) propagating the topology control (TC) messages and (2) considering the residual energy levels of these relay nodes in the selection process. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering algorithm and a relay node selection algorithm based on the residual energy level and connectivity index of the nodes. This hybrid model is referred to as H-OLSR. The OLSR messages are adapted to handle the cluster heads election and the MPR nodes selection algorithms. These algorithms are designed to cope with selfish nodes that are getting benefits from others without cooperating with them. Hence, we propose an incentive compatible mechanism that motivates nodes to behave truthfully during the selection and election processes. Incentive retributions increase the reputation of the nodes. Since network services are granted according to nodes’ accumulated reputation, the nodes should cooperate. Finally, based on nodes’ reputation, the most trusted forwarding paths are determined. This reputation-based hybrid model is referred to as RH-OLSR. Simulation results show that the novel H-OLSR model based on energy and connectivity can efficiently prolong the network lifetime, while the RH-OLSR model improves the trustworthiness of the network through the selection of the most trusted paths based on nodes’ reputations. These are the two different processes used to define the reputation-based clustering OLSR (RBC-OLSR) routing protocol.     

Dynamic frame length channel assignment in wireless multihop ad hoc networks

A good channel assignment scheme in a multihop ad hoc network should not only guarantee successful data transmissions without collisions but also enhance the channel spatial reuse to maximize the system throughput. From the channel assignment schemes in time division multiple access (TDMA) slot assignment protocols developed in previous studies, we have found that these protocols do not have a convenient frame length shrink scheme after the expansion of the frame length. As the network size grows, the frame length expands quickly, particularly when we set the frame length as a power of two. A very long frame may result in poor channel utilization when it contains many unused slots. In this paper, we propose a dynamic frame length expansion and recovery method called dynamic frame length channel assignment (DFLCA). This strategy is designed to make better use of the available channels by taking advantage of the spatial reuse concept. In DFLCA, the increase in the spatial reuse is achieved by adding certain amount of control overhead. We show that the bandwidth saved due to the channel spatial reuse is larger than the additional bandwidth spent on the control overhead.     

A scalable key management and clustering scheme for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

This paper describes a scalable key management and clustering scheme for secure group communications in ad hoc and sensor networks. The scalability problem is solved by partitioning the communicating devices into subgroups, with a leader in each subgroup, and further organizing the subgroups into hierarchies. Each level of the hierarchy is called a tier or layer. Key generation, distribution, and actual data transmissions follow the hierarchy. The distributed, efficient clustering approach (DECA) provides robust clustering to form subgroups, and analytical and simulation results demonstrate that DECA is energy-efficient and resilient against node mobility. Comparing with most other schemes, our approach is extremely scalable and efficient, provides more security guarantees, and is selective, adaptive and robust.     

Safeguarding ad hoc networks with a self-organized membership control system

One of the key challenges for ad hoc networks is providing distributed membership control. This paper introduces a self-organized mechanism to control user access to ad hoc networks without requiring any infrastructure or a central administration entity. Our mechanism authenticates and monitors nodes with a structure that we call controller set, which is robust to the dynamic network membership. We develop analytical models for evaluating the proposal and validate them through simulations. The analysis shows that the proposed scheme is robust even to collusion attacks and provides availability up to 90% better than proposals based on threshold cryptography. The performance improvement arises mostly from the controller sets capability to recover after network partitions and from the identification and exclusion of malicious nodes.     

On scheduling and clustering in hierarchical TH-PPM UWB wireless ad hoc networks

Ultra wideband (UWB) systems are considered as the key wireless infrastructure platforms for efficient short-range communications. In particular, the UWB based mobile computing systems are envisioned to be attractive solutions to various ad hoc networking applications. However, due to UWB’s unique physical characteristics, the traditional resource management schemes for ad hoc networks cannot be applied to UWB based systems directly. In this paper, we consider the bandwidth scheduling problem in a UWB based hierarchical wireless ad hoc network, which is typically used in an enterprise-scale mobile computing environment. Based on the mathematical analysis and the computer simulations, it is demonstrated that our proposed scheduling scheme exhibits close-to-optimal performance governed by the proportional fairness (PF) constraint. Moreover, a novel self-organized clustering method is designed to improve the system throughput while meeting the PF constraint. Simulation results suggest that the proposed clustering method is effective under various system configurations.

Decentralized key generation scheme for cellular-based heterogeneous wireless ad hoc networks

With the support of cellular system a cellular-based mobile ad hoc network (MANET) offers promising communication scenarios while entails secure data exchange as other wireless systems. In this paper, we propose a novel decentralized key generation mechanism using shared symmetric polynomials in which the base stations (BSs) carry out an initial key generation by a symmetric polynomial in a distributed manner and then pass on the key material to mobile stations (MSs). Thereafter, our proposed key generation scheme enables each pair of MSs to establish a pairwise key without any intervention from the BS, thus reducing the management cost for the BS. The shared key between two MSs is computed without any interaction between them. In addition, the trust among MSs is derived from the cellular infrastructure, thus enjoying an equal security level as provided in the underlying cellular network. Simulations are done to observe the system performance and the results are very encouraging.     

Opportunistic resource utilization networks—A new paradigm for specialized ad hoc networks

We present opportunistic resource utilization networks or oppnets, a novel paradigm of specialized ad hoc networks. We believe that applications can benefit from using specialized ad hoc networks that provide a natural basis for them, the basis more efficient and effective than what general-purpose ad hoc networks can offer. Oppnets constitute the subcategory of ad hoc networks where diverse systems, not employed originally as nodes of an oppnet, join it dynamically in order to perform certain tasks they have been called to participate in. Oppnets have a significant potential to improve a variety of applications, and to create new application niches. We categorize opportunistic networks currently known in the literature as class 1opportunistic networks that use opportunistically only communication resources, and class 2opportunistic networks or oppnets that use opportunistically all kinds of resources, including not only communication but also computation, sensing, actuation, storage, etc. After describing the oppnets and the basics of their operation, we discuss the Oppnet Virtual Machine (OVM)—a proposed standard implementation framework for oppnet applications. It is followed by a discussion of an example application scenario using the OVM primitives. Next, we discuss the design and operations of a small-scale oppnet, named MicroOppnet, originally developed as a proof of concept. MicroOppnet is now being extended to serve as a testbed for experimentation and pilot implementations of oppnet architectures and their components. We conclude with a summary and a list of some open issues for oppnets.     

Scalability of routing methods in ad hoc networks

In an ad hoc network each host (node) participates in routing packets. Ad hoc networks based on 802.11 WLAN technology have been the focus of several prior studies. These investigations were mainly based on simulations of scenarios involving up to 100 nodes (usually 50 nodes) and relaxed (too unrealistic) data traffic conditions. Many routing protocols in such setting offer the same performance, and many potential problems stay undetected. At the same time, an ad hoc network may not want (or be able) to limit the number of hosts involved in the network. As more nodes join an ad hoc network or the data traffic grows, the potential for collisions and contention increases, and protocols face the challenging task to route data packets without creating high administrative load. The investigation of protocol behavior in large scenarios exposes many hidden problems. The understanding of these problems helps not only in improving protocol scalability to large scenarios but also in increasing the throughput and other QoS metrics in small ones. This paper studies on the example of AODV and DSR protocols the influence of the network size (up to 550 nodes), nodes mobility, nodes density, suggested data traffic on protocols performance. In this paper we identify and analyze the reasons for poor absolute performance that both protocols demonstrate in the majority of studied scenarios. We also propose and evaluate restructured protocol stack that helps to improve the performance and scalability of any routing protocol in wireless ad hoc networks.     

Modelling incentives for collaboration in mobile ad hoc networks

This paper explores a model for the operation of an ad hoc mobile network. The model incorporates incentives for users to act as transit nodes on multi-hop paths and to be rewarded with their own ability to send traffic. The paper explores consequences of the model by means of fluid-level simulations of a network and illustrates the way in which network resources are allocated to users according to their geographical position.     

Quorum and connected dominating sets based location service in wireless ad hoc, sensor and actuator networks

Location service provides position of mobile destination to source node to enable geo-routing. In existing quorum-based location service protocols, destination node registers its location along a ‘column’ while source node makes a query along a ‘row’. Grid and quorum-based location service is based on division of network into square grids, and selecting ‘leader’ location server node in each grid. Location updates, leader reelection and information transfer are performed whenever destination and leader nodes are moving to a different grid. We propose here to apply connected dominating sets (DS) as an alternative to grids. We also improved basic quorum, and applied on DS-quorum (DS based quorum) better criterion for triggering local information exchanges and global location updates, by meeting two criteria: certain distance movement and certain number of observed link changes with (DS) nodes. Backbones created by DS nodes (using 1-hop neighborhood information) are small size, do not have a parameter like grid size, and preserve network connectivity without the help of other nodes. Location updates and destination searches are restricted to backbone nodes. Both methods use ‘hello’ messages to learn neighbors. While this suffices to construct DS, grid leader (re)election requires additional messages. Simulation results show that using DS as backbone for quorum construction is superior to using grid as backbone or no backbone at all. The proposed DS-quorum location service can achieve higher (or similar) success rate with much less communication overhead than grid-based approaches.     

GeoQuorums: implementing atomic memory in mobile ad hoc networks

We present a new approach, the GeoQuorums approach, for implementing atomic read/write shared memory in mobile ad hoc networks. Our approach is based on associating abstract atomic objects with certain geographic locations. We assume the existence of focal points, geographic areas that are normally “populated” by mobile nodes. For example, a focal point may be a road junction, a scenic observation point, or a water resource in the desert. Mobile nodes that happen to populate a focal point participate in implementing a shared atomic object, using a replicated state machine approach. These objects, which we call focal point objects, are prone to occasional failures when the corresponding geographic areas are depopulated. The GeoQuorums algorithm uses the fault-prone focal point objects to implement atomic read/write operations on a fault-tolerant virtual shared object. The GeoQuorums algorithm uses a quorum-based strategy in which each quorum consists of a set of focal point objects. The quorums are used to maintain the consistency of the shared memory and to tolerate limited failures of the focal point objects, which may be caused by depopulation of the corresponding geographic areas. We present a mechanism for changing the set of quorums on the fly, thus improving efficiency. Overall, the new GeoQuorums algorithm efficiently implements read and write operations in a highly dynamic, mobile network.