Beyond 5G networks are expected to support massive traffic through decentralized solutions and advanced networking mechanisms. This paper aims at contributing towards this vision through the integration of device-centric wireless networks, including Device-to-Device (D2D) communications, and the Next Generation of Opportunistic networking (NGO). This integration offers multiple communication modes such as opportunistic cellular and opportunistic D2D-aided communications. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential and benefits of this integration in terms of energy efficiency, spectral efficiency and traffic offloading. We propose an integration of device-centric wireless networks and NGO that is not driven by a precise knowledge of the presence of the links. The proposed technique utilizes a novel concept of graph to model the evolution of the networking conditions and network connectivity. Uncertainties and future conditions are included in the proposed graph model through anticipatory mobile networking to estimate the transmission energy cost of the different communication modes. Based on these estimates, the devices schedule their transmissions using the most efficient communication mode. These decisions are later revisited in real-time using more precise knowledge about the network state. The conducted evaluation shows that the proposed technique significantly reduces the energy consumption (from 60% to 90% depending on the scenario) compared to traditional single-hop cellular communications and performs closely to an ideal oracle based system with full knowledge of present and future events. The transmission and computational overheads of the proposed technique show small impact on such energy gains.
The number of computing devices of the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to grow by billions. New networking architectures are being considered to handle communications in the IoT. One of these architectures is Opportunistic Networking (OppNets). To evaluate the performance of OppNets, an OMNeT++ based modular simulator is built with models that handle the operations of the different protocol layers of an OppNets based node. The work presented here provides the details of this simulator, called the Opportunistic Protocol Simulator (OPS).
The short-term adoption of opportunistic networks (OppNet) depends on improving the current performance of this type of network. Software-Defined Networks (SDN) architecture is used by Internet applications with high resource demand. SDN technology improves network performance by programmatically managing the network configuration by using a control layer. In this paper, we propose that OppNet nodes use a control layer to get an overview of the whole network and use this knowledge to apply policies to get a better performance of the network. As a use case for our experimentation, we have focus…
Mobile users are envisioned to exploit direct communication opportunities between their portable devices, in order to enrich the set of services they can access through cellular or WiFi networks. Sharing contents of common interest or providing access to resources or services between peers can enhance a mobile node's capabilities, offload the cellular network, and disseminate information to nodes without Internet access. Interest patterns, i.e. how many nodes are interested in each content or service (popularity), as well as how many users can provide a content or service (availability) impact…
In this article, we first provide a taxonomy of dynamic spectrum access. We then focus on opportunistic spectrum access, the overlay approach under the hierarchical access model of dynamic spectrum access. we aim to provide an overview of challenges and recent developments in both technological and regulatory aspects of opportunistic spectrum access.
The current Internet design is not capable to support communications in environments characterized by very long delays and frequent network partitions. To allow devices to communicate in such environments, delay-tolerant networking solutions have been proposed by exploiting opportunistic message forwarding, with limited expectations of end-to-end connectivity and node resources. Such solutions envision non-traditional communication scenarios, such as disaster areas and development regions. Several forwarding algorithms have been investigated, aiming to offer the best trade-off between cost (nu…
Opportunistic networking is one way to realize pervasive applications while placing little demand on network infrastructure, especially for operating in less well connected environments. In contrast to the ubiquitous network access model inherent to many cloud-based applications, for which the web browser forms the user front end, opportunistic applications require installing software on mobile devices. Even though app stores (when accessible) offer scalable distribution mechanisms for applications, a designer needs to support multiple OS platforms and only some of those are suitable for oppor…
With the current host-based Internet architecture, networking faces limitations in dynamic scenarios, due mostly to host mobility. The ICN paradigm mitigates such problems by releasing the need to have an end-to-end transport session established during the life time of the data transfer. Moreover, the ICN concept solves the mismatch between the Internet architecture and the way users would like to use it: currently a user needs to know the topological location of the hosts involved in the communication when he/she just wants to get the data, independently of its location. Most of the research …
The increasing trend on wireless-connected devices makes opportunistic networking a promising alternative to existing infrastructure-based networks. However, on these networks there is neither guarantee about the availability of the connections nor on the topology of the network. The development of opportunistic applications, i.e., applications running over opportunistic networks, is still in early stages. This is due to lack of tools to support the process in such uncertain conditions. Indeed, many tools have been introduced to study and characterize opportunistic networks, but none of them i…
Pervasive networks formed by users' mobile devices have the potential to exploit a rich set of distributed service components that can be composed to provide each user with a multitude of application level services. However, in many challenging scenarios, opportunistic networking techniques are required to enable communication as devices suffer from intermittent connectivity, disconnections and partitions. This poses novel challenges to service composition techniques. While several works have discussed middleware and architectures for service composition in well-connected wired networks and in…
Institute for Informatics and Telematics, National Research Council（国家研究委员会信息与远程信息处理研究所）
The widespread diffusion of mobile phones is triggering an exponential growth of mobile data traffic that is likely to cause, in the near future, considerable traffic overload issues even in last-generation cellular networks. Offloading part of the traffic to other networks is considered a very promising approach and, in particular, in this paper, we consider offloading through opportunistic networks of users' devices. However, the performance of this solution strongly depends on the pattern of encounters between mobile nodes, which should therefore be taken into account when designing offload…
This paper introduces a methodology for the development of routing algorithms that takes into consideration opportunistic networking. The proposal focus on the rationale behind the methodology, and highlights its most important stages and components. It also discusses the importance of two core elements in the process of protocol designing: the scenario selection, based on essential characteristics, and the choice of standard evaluation metrics. As of now, there has been no common methodology for developing new routing algorithms, and this has led to proposals difficult to compare, to evaluate…
5G networks mainly rely on infrastructure-centric cellular solutions to address data traffic and service demands. Continuously scaling infrastructure-centric cellular networks is not exempt of challenges, and beyond 5G networks should consider the active coexistence and coordination of infrastructure-centric and device-centric wireless networks. Device-centric wireless networks will build from D2D and MCNs. Device-centric wireless networks can push the limits of edge computing and networking to smart devices (including smartphones, vehicles, machines and robots), and exploit their mobile compu…
In future IoT environments it is expected that the role of personal devices of mobile users in the physical area where IoT devices are deployed will become more and more important. In particular, due to the push towards decentralisation of services towards the edge, it is likely that a significant share of data generated by IoT devices will be needed by other (mobile) nodes nearby, while global Internet access will be limited only to a small fraction of data. In this context, opportunistic networking schemes can be adopted to build efficient content-centric protocols, through which data genera…
Over the past decade, online social networks (OSNs) such as Twitter and Facebook have thrived and experienced rapid growth to over 1 billion users. A major evolution would be to leverage the characteristics of OSNs to evaluate the effectiveness of the many routing schemes developed by the research community in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we showcase the Secure Opportunistic Schemes (SOS) middleware which allows different routing schemes to be easily implemented relieving the burden of security and connection establishment. The feasibility of creating a delay tolerant social network is…
While there is a drastic shift from host-centric networking to content-centric networking, how to locate and retrieve the relevant content efficiently, especially in a mobile network, is still an open question. Mobile devices host increasing volume of data which could be shared with the nearby nodes in a multi-hop fashion. However, searching for content in this resource-restricted setting is not trivial due to the lack of a content index, as well as, desire for keeping the search cost low. In this paper, we analyze a lightweight search scheme, hop-limited search, that forwards the search messa…
The existing characteristics of the wireless networks nowadays, urgently impose the exploitation of flexible networking solutions that will offer increased efficiency in resource utilization and application Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning and at the same time will reduce the energy consumption and achieve green targets. In this respect, Operator-governed Opportunistic Networks (ONs), which are dynamically created, temporary, coordinated extensions of the infrastructure, are the basic constituents in the proposed approach. In addition, Cognitive Management Systems (CMSs), which comprise s…
In this paper, we investigate how to network smartphones for providing communications in disaster recovery. By bridging the gaps among different kinds of wireless networks, we have designed and implemented a system called TeamPhone, which provides smartphones the capabilities of communications in disaster recovery. Specifically, TeamPhone consists of two components: a messaging system and a self-rescue system. The messaging system integrates cellular networking, ad-hoc networking and opportunistic networking seamlessly, and enables communications among rescue workers. The self-rescue system gr…
In this paper we discuss the state of the art of (mobile) multi-hop ad hoc networking with the aim to present the current status of the research activities and identify the consolidated research areas, with limited research opportunities, and the hot and emerging research areas for which further research is required. We start by briefly discussing the MANET paradigm, and why the research on MANET protocols is now a cold research topic. Then we analyze the active research areas. Specifically, after discussing the wireless-network technologies we analyze four successful ad hoc networking paradig…
A core feature of Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is opportunistic content caching in routers. It enables routers to satisfy content requests with in-network cached copies, thereby reducing bandwidth utilization, decreasing congestion, and improving overall content retrieval latency. One major drawback of in-network caching is that content producers have no knowledge about where their content is stored. This is problematic if a producer wishes to delete its content. In this paper, we show how to address this problem with a protocol called BEAD (Best-Effort Autonomous Deletion). BEAD achieves …
In opportunistic networks, the use of social metrics (e.g., degree, closeness and betweenness centrality) of human mobility network, has recently been shown to be an effective solution to improve the performance of opportunistic forwarding algorithms. Most of the current social-based forwarding schemes exploit some globally defined node centrality, resulting in a bias towards the most popular nodes. However, these nodes may not be appropriate relay candidates for some target nodes, because they may have low importance relative to these subsets of target nodes. In this paper, to improve the opp…
Intermittently-powered wireless sensor networks (WSNs) use energy harvesting and small energy storage to remove the need for battery replacement and to extend the operational lifetime. However, an intermittently-powered forwarder regularly turns on or off, which requires alternative networking solutions. Opportunistic routing (OR) is a potential cross-layer solution for this novel application, but due to the interaction with the energy storage, the operation of these protocols is highly dynamic. To compare protocols and components in like-for-like scenarios we propose module interfaces for MAC…
Istituto di Informatica e Telematica, CNR（意大利国家研究委员会信息学与电信学研究所）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）
Untile recently crowdsourcing has been primarily conceived as an online activity to harness resources for problem solving. However the emergence of opportunistic networking (ON) has opened up crowdsourcing to the spatial domain. In this paper we bring the ON model for potential crowdsourcing in the smart city environment. We introduce cognitive features to the ON that allow users' mobile devices to become aware of the surrounding physical environment. Specifically, we exploit cognitive psychology studies on dynamic memory structures and cognitive heuristics, i.e. mental models that describe ho…
Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is a promi- nent topic in current networking research. ICN design signifi- cantly considers the increased demand of scalable and efficient content distribution for Future Internet. However, intermittently connected mobile environments or disruptive networks present a significant challenge to ICN deployment. In this context, delay tolerant networking (DTN) architecture is an initiative that effec- tively deals with network disruptions. Among all ICN proposals, Content Centric Networking (CCN) is gaining more and more interest for its architectural design, bu…
Despite of the importance of access to computers and to the Internet for the development of people and their inclusion in society, there are people that still suffer with digital divide and social exclusion. Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) can help the digital/social inclusion of these people as it allows opportunistic and asynchronous communication, which does not depend upon networking infrastructure. We introduce SocialDTN, an implementation of the DTN architecture for Android devices that operates over Bluetooth, taking advantages of the social daily routines of users. As we wan…
Reinforcement Learning for Opportunistic Routing in Software-Defined LEO-Terrestrial Systems
School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide（阿德莱德大学电气与机械工程学院）；Singapore University of Technology and Design（新加坡科技设计大学）；Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute（电子电信研究院）
Since the packet is transmitted to a set of relaying nodes in opportunistic routing strategy, so the transmission delay and the duplication transmission are serious. For reducing the transmission delay and the duplicate transmission, in this paper, we propose the delay based duplication transmission avoid (DDA) coordination scheme for opportunistic routing. In this coordination scheme, the candidate relaying nodes are divided into different fully connected relaying networks, so the duplicate transmission is avoided. Moreover, we propose the relaying network recognition algorithm which can be u…
Smart optical networks are the next evolution of programmable networking and programmable automation of optical networks, with human-in-the-loop network control and management. The paper discusses this evolution and the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The evolution of software defined networking (SDN) has played a significant role in the development of next-generation networks (NGN). SDN as a programmable network having service provisioning on the fly has induced a keen interest both in academic world and industry. In this article, a comprehensive survey is presented on SDN advancement over conventional network. The paper covers historical evolution in relation to SDN, functional architecture of the SDN and its related technologies, and OpenFlow standards/protocols, including the basic concept of interfacing of OpenFlow with network element…
Two main trends in today's internet are of major interest for video streaming services: most content delivery platforms coincide towards using adaptive video streaming over HTTP and new network architectures allowing caching at intermediate points within the network. We investigate one of the most popular streaming service in terms of rate adaptation and opportunistic caching. Our experimental study shows that the streaming client's rate selection trajectory, i.e., the set of selected segments of varied bit rates which constitute a complete video, is not repetitive across separate downloads. A…
We consider the problem of routing packets across a multi-hop network consisting of multiple sources of traffic and wireless links while ensuring bounded expected delay. Each packet transmission can be overheard by a random subset of receiver nodes among which the next relay is selected opportunistically. The main challenge in the design of minimum-delay routing policies is balancing the trade-off between routing the packets along the shortest paths to the destination and distributing traffic according to the maximum backpressure. Combining important aspects of shortest path and backpressure r…
As radio spectrum usage paradigm moving from the traditional command and control allocation scheme to the open spectrum allocation scheme, wireless networks meet new opportunities and challenges. In this article we introduce the concept of cognitive wireless mesh (CogMesh) networks and address the unique problem in such a network. CogMesh is a self-organized distributed network architecture combining cognitive technologies with the mesh structure in order to provide a uniform service platform over a wide range of networks. It is based on dynamic spectrum access (DSA) and featured by self-organ…
In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the opportunistic routing has better performances on packet delivery probability than the deterministic routing. For reducing the transmission delay and duplicate transmission in opportunistic routing, the candidate forwarding set optimization technology is proposed. This technology is crucial to opportunistic routing. The prior arts have limitations on improving the routing performances. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the concept of the network-based approach to address the disadvantages of prior arts. In the network-based approach, the nodes in the c…
Smart grid, regarded as the next generation power grid, uses two-way flows of electricity and information to create a widely distributed automated energy delivery network. In this work we present our vision on smart grid from the perspective of wireless communications and networking technologies. We present wireless communication and networking paradigms for four typical scenarios in the future smart grid and also point out the research challenges of the wireless communication and networking technologies used in smart grid
Opportunistic networks could become the solution to provide communication support in both cities where the cellular network could be overloaded, and in scenarios where a fixed infrastructure is not available, like in remote and developing regions. A critical issue that still requires a satisfactory solution is the design of an efficient data delivery solution. Social characteristics are recently being considered as a promising alternative. Most opportunistic network applications rely on the different mobile devices carried by users, and whose behavior affects the use of the device itself. This…
Limited spectrum resources and dramatic growth of high data rate applications have motivated opportunistic spectrum access utilizing the promising concept of cognitive networks. Although this concept has emerged primarily to enhance spectrum utilization and to allow the coexistence of heterogeneous network technologies, the importance of energy consumption imposes additional challenges, because energy consumption and communication performance can be at odds. In this paper, the approaches for energy efficient spectrum sensing and spectrum handoff, fundamental building blocks of cognitive networ…
Utilizing device-to-device (D2D) connections among mobile devices is promising to meet the increasing throughput demand over cellular links. In particular, when mobile devices are in close proximity of each other and are interested in the same content, D2D connections such as Wi-Fi Direct can be opportunistically used to construct a cooperative (and jointly operating) cellular and D2D networking system. However, it is crucial to understand, quantify, and exploit the potential of network coding for cooperating mobile devices in the joint cellular and D2D setup. In this paper, we consider this p…
The widespread proliferation of handheld devices enables mobile carriers to be connected at anytime and anywhere. Meanwhile, the mobility patterns of mobile devices strongly depend on the users' movements, which are closely related to their social relationships and behaviors. Consequently, today's mobile networks are becoming increasingly human centric. This leads to the emergence of a new field which we call socially-aware networking (SAN). One of the major features of SAN is that social awareness becomes indispensable information for the design of networking solutions. This emerging paradigm…
Wireless charging is a technique of transmitting power through an air gap to an electrical device for the purpose of energy replenishment. Recently, the wireless charging technology has been significantly advanced in terms of efficiency and functionality. This article first presents an overview and fundamentals of wireless charging. We then provide the review of standards, i.e., Qi and Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), and highlight on their communication protocols. Next, we propose a novel concept of wireless charger networking which allows chargers to be connected to facilitate information…
A growing trend for information technology is to not just react to changes, but anticipate them as much as possible. This paradigm made modern solutions, such as recommendation systems, a ubiquitous presence in today's digital transactions. Anticipatory networking extends the idea to communication technologies by studying patterns and periodicity in human behavior and network dynamics to optimize network performance. This survey collects and analyzes recent papers leveraging context information to forecast the evolution of network conditions and, in turn, to improve network performance. In par…
In multi-access wireless networks, transmission scheduling is a key component that determines the efficiency and fairness of wireless spectrum allocation. At one extreme, greedy opportunistic scheduling that allocates airtime to the user with the largest instantaneous channel gain achieves the optimal spectrum efficiency and transmission reliability but the poorest user-level fairness. At the other extreme, fixed TDMA scheduling achieves the fairest airtime allocation but the lowest spectrum efficiency and transmission reliability. To balance the two competing objectives, extensive research ef…
AI-driven Intent-Based Networking Approach for Self-configuration of Next Generation Networks
Information and Computer Science Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals（信息与计算机科学系，国王法赫德石油与矿物大学）；IRC for Intelligent Secure Systems, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals（智能安全系统研究院，国王法赫德石油与矿物大学）
LoRaWAN is one of the leading Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) architectures. It was originally designed for systems consisting of static sensor or Internet of Things (IoT) devices and static gateways. It was recently updated to introduce new features such as nano-second timestamps which open up applications to enable LoRaWAN to be adopted for mobile device tracking and localisation. In such mobile scenarios, devices could temporarily lose communication with the gateways because of interference from obstacles or deep fading, causing throughput reduction and delays in data transmission. To o…
Due to the unprecedented advances in satellite fabrication and deployment, innovative communications and networking technologies, ambitious space projects and programs, and the resurgence of interest in satellite networks, there is a need to redefine space networks (SpaceNets) to incorporate all of these evolutions. This paper introduces a vision for future SpaceNets that considers advances in several related domains. First, we present a reference architecture that captures the various network entities and terminals in a holistic manner. Based on this, space, air, and ground use cases are stud…
Ethernet is the most promising solution to reduce complexity and enhance the bandwidth in the next generation in-car networks. Dedicated Ethernet protocols enable the real-time aspects in such networks. One promising candidate is the IEEE 802.1Q Time-Sensitive Networking protocol suite. Common Ethernet technologies, however, increases the vulnerability of the car infrastructure as they widen the attack surface for many components. In this paper proposes an IEEE 802.1Qci based algorithm that on the one hand, protects against DoS attacks by metering incoming Ethernet frames. On the other hand, i…
For energy-harvesting sensor nodes, rechargeable batteries play a critical role in sensing and transmissions. By coupling two simple Markovian queue models in a delay-tolerant networking setting, we consider the problem of battery sizing for these sensor nodes to operate effectively: given the intended energy depletion and overflow probabilities, how to decide the minimal battery capacity that is required to ensure opportunistic data exchange despite the inherent intermittency of renewable energy generation.
Next generation (5G) wireless networks are expected to support the massive data and accommodate a wide range of services/use cases with distinct requirements in a cost-effective, flexible, and agile manner. As a promising solution, wireless network virtualization (WNV), or network slicing, enables multiple virtual networks to share the common infrastructure on demand, and to be customized for different services/use cases. This article focuses on network-wide resource allocation for realizing WNV. Specifically, the motivations, the enabling platforms, and the benefits of WNV, are first reviewed…
Ethernet has become the next standard for automotive and industrial automation networks. Standard extensions such as IEEE 802.1Q Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) have been proven to meet the real-time and robustness requirements of these environments. Augmenting the TSN switching by Software-Defined Networking functions promises additional benefits: A programming option for TSN devices can add much value to the resilience, security, and adaptivity of the environment. Network simulation allows to model highly complex networks before assembly and is an essential process for the design and validat…
By all measures, wireless networking has seen explosive growth over the past decade. Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) cellular technology has increased the bandwidth available for smartphones, in essence, delivering broadband speeds to mobile devices. The most recent 5G technology is further enhancing the transmission speeds and cell capacity, as well as, reducing latency through the use of different radio technologies and is expected to provide Internet connections that are an order of magnitude faster than 4G LTE. Technology continues to advance rapidly, however, and the next g…
The physical topology is emerging as the next frontier in an ongoing effort to render communication networks more flexible. While first empirical results indicate that these flexibilities can be exploited to reconfigure and optimize the network toward the workload it serves and, e.g., providing the same bandwidth at lower infrastructure cost, only little is known today about the fundamental algorithmic problems underlying the design of reconfigurable networks. This paper initiates the study of the theory of demand-aware, self-adjusting networks. Our main position is that self-adjusting network…
