Resource-aware routing in opportunistic networks: existing protocols and open research issues

Abstract

Opportunistic networks provide an effective communication in challenging scenarios such as interplanetary communication, post-disaster situation, etc. As the nodes have limited resources, thus designing an efficient routing protocol in opportunistic networks always remains a challenging task. Several review papers presenting features and applications of opportunistic networks, mobility models, challenges, taxonomies of routing, and incentive schemes exist, but a comprehensive review on resource-aware routing appears to be missing. Therefore, we propose a novel taxonomy for categorising existing resource-aware routing protocols proposed in this field. These are mainly categorised into energy-aware, buffer aware, bandwidth aware, and hybrid routing that considers the energy of nodes, buffer space, bandwidth, and multiple parameters respectively to make forwarding or routing decision. Further, we discuss various existing routing protocols with their strengths and weaknesses, leading to open research issues. This survey aims to help future researchers devise a novel routing protocol for opportunistic networks.