Replica update strategies in mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract

Since every node can be mobile and the network topology and resources can change frequently, disconnected operation is a common mode in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Disconnected operation and weak connectivity can cause data unavailability. Caching and replica allocation within network can improve data accessibility by storing the data and accessing it locally. However, maintaining data consistency among replicas becomes a challenging problem. Hence, balancing data accessibility and consistency is an important step towards data management in ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose replica update strategies to maintain data consistency while improving data accessibility in ad hoc networks. Our solution is based on a clustered network where nodes in the network are divided into small and manageable groups to reduce communication overhead, support localized operations and enhance scalability. A simulation environment was built using an ns2 network simulator to evaluate the performance of the proposed schemes. The results show that our schemes distribute replicas effectively and provide high data accessibility rate.