NFK: a novel fault-tolerant K-mutual exclusion algorithm for mobile and opportunistic ad hoc networks

Abstract

This paper presents a fault-tolerant algorithm ensuring multiple resources sharing in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) that is able to handle the known K-mutual exclusion problem in such mobile environments. The proposed algorithm relies on a token-based strategy, and requires information about resources and their use to be carried in routing protocol control messages. This way, our solution avoids any additional exchange of messages. Furthermore, experimental results show that it offers a fast response time. Moreover, we introduce a dual-layer fault-tolerance mechanism that tolerates the faults of several sites at the same time without affecting the well functioning of the system. Simulation results also evidence the high efficiency of our proposal, which achieves reduced overhead and response delay even in the presence of critical situations where multiple simultaneous faults occur.