Abstract
Infrastructure-less wireless multi-hop networks have long been proposed for natural disaster and warfare scenarios. However, the current demand of such networks has been towards social networking, gaming and ultimately, ubiquitous computing. In fact, the increasing number of users that own wireless capable devices is taking these networks to an entirely different scale. Existing routing protocols do not scale and do not consider the context wherein services operate. By presenting an alternative routing scheme that appropriately handles mobility of users among different contexts, large-scale clustered wireless networks are designed, using an efficient gateway selection with load-balancing capabilities. This approach uses a virtual hierarchy of clusters to explore the contextual-proximity of nodes, while reducing the total overhead of routing traffic even when compared with other cluster-based approaches. Moreover, it is capable of predicting gateway link disconnections, increasing the total amount of delivered data. The obtained results reveal that this routing scheme outperforms existing routing protocols regardless of the mobility pattern being used, being consistently lighter in overhead and delivering up to 50% more data traffic. These results motivate a new era of large-scale wireless multi-hop networks suitable for hand-held devices exchanging data amongst themselves.
Highlights
Recent technological advances have promoted a massive dissemination of wireless capable devices with greater processing power, higher memory and autonomy, increasing the connectivity of users to different services and applications
The considered wireless nodes follow the IEEE 802.11g standard [41] at 2.4 Ghz, and have a maximum range of 100 meters (Transmit Power of 3.7e−4W ) which corresponds to the maximum obtainable range of common wireless cards [42,43]
All other simulation parameters not mentioned here use their values set by default in the OPNET modeler wireless suite simulator, version 16.0.A PL1
Summary
Recent technological advances have promoted a massive dissemination of wireless capable devices with greater processing power, higher memory and autonomy, increasing the connectivity of users to different services and applications. In a near future each person is expected to be surrounded by hundreds or even thousands of these devices [1], motivating the development of networks capable of connecting them whilst supporting the applications’ requirements, taking into account that a considerable amount of physical resources from the available infrastructures will be necessary. The management of a large scale infrastructure-less network is still a challenge. Another typical characteristic of the spreading wireless gadgets is their portability, creating new challenges related with mobility. This aspect is crucial for users who expect seamless connectivity regardless of where they are. Different trajectories may reduce connectivity coverage, resulting in the disruption of paths established by routing protocols
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