An Efficient Handoff Protocol for Causal Ordering Group Communication in Wireless Hybrid Networks

Abstract

Group communication has been an important communication paradigm for many distributed applications. However, the design of a group communication protocol is facing a new challenge with the emergence of mobile devices. The key to the efficiency of one such protocol is the provision of a handoff protocol that is able to seamlessly manage the mobility of devices in an efficient manner. In this paper, we address group communication that meets causal ordering requirement in a wireless hybrid network which is characterized by the multi-hop property of the underlying mobile ad hoc networks. In particular, we propose a handoff protocol to ensure smooth migration of mobile hosts while preserving causal ordering property at little cost in a wireless hybrid network.