Routing in Partitioned Mobile Networks

Mobile wireless networks can be partitioned in scenarios where insufficient or no fixed infrastructure is available, where the node density is low and heterogeneous, and where the radio environment is demanding. Such conditions may arise in emergency and military applications, ad hoc networking, sensor networking for environmental monitoring, vehicular networks, etc.

Routing through space and time

In partitioned networks, instantaneous end-to-end routes do not exist between some pairs of nodes. Nevertheless, a route may exist over time, because the network topology fluctuates due to node mobility and channel fluctuations. Finding such routes is challenging, because (a) the additional degree of freedom - time - increases the complexity of the problem, and (b) control information itself is constrained by the partitioned topology, breaking classical routing algorithms.

Heterogeneous and stable node distributions

In this project, we develop new routing algorithms for partitioned and delay-tolerant networks (DTN). We specifically focus on mobile wireless networks whose node distribution is heterogeneous because nodes have a tendency to cluster around concentration points, places of high node density that become islands of connectivity. Such concentration points usually arise as features of the natural or constructed environment, and tend to be stable: a cafeteria, parking lot, watering hole, camp or fort, warehouse, train station, etc. Our goal is to exploit such an underlying stable structure of concentration points, and the flows of mobile nodes between these points, to develop efficient routing algorithms.

Papers:

  • A Parsimonious Model of Mobile Partitioned Networks with Clustering,
    M. Piorkowski, N. Sarafijanovic-Djukic, and M. Grossglauser, COMSNETS 09, Bangalore, India, January 2009. [pdf]
  • Island Hopping: Efficient Mobility-Assisted Forwarding in Partitioned Networks,
    N. Sarafijanovic-Djukic, M. Piorkowski, and M. Grossglauser, IEEE SECON 2006, Reston, VA, September 2006. [pdf]

Links:

Student Projects:

  • Please check the LCA Projects page to find more information about semester and master projects in this area.