A Comprehensive Survey of Social Based Routing for Delay Tolerant Networks

Abstract

Delay-tolerant networks (DTN) is an approach to deal with scarce network connectivity found in sparse mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) which makes the problem of routing messages a challenging task. DTNs have find their usefulness in many challenging environments such as tactical networks, underwater sensor networks, wildlife monitoring, disaster recovery etc. Pocket Switched Networks (PSNs) have emerged as a new application of the delay tolerant networks where network nodes are computing devices carried by humans. Hence, the study of how humans interact in their day-to-day life, the places they visit frequently, the people they meet frequently, the social groups in which they participate on regular basis etc. can help improve routing process in PSNs. This type of routing inspired from the way humans interact with each other is referred to as social based routing and had been a recent topic of research in the field of DTNs. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the various social-based algorithms that have been designed for Delay Tolerant Networks.

Improving Delivery Probability in Mobile Opportunistic Networks with Social-Based Routing

“…The first one refers to solutions that aim to replicate data to the maximum number of nodes to improve the delivery probability of messages [27]. In the case of forwarding strategies, they apply techniques to optimize the hops and the copies, trying to define the most adequate path to the destination [26]; however, as far as we know, it is difficult to classify solutions into these two groups, since many current applications apply both philosophies [14]. This is the case of algorithms based on social information.…”

“…The use of social information for routing in MONs has motivated a large collection of works [6,14,28]. These solutions are mainly based on a set of properties and behaviors relevant for MONs.…”

“…In an attempt to solve this issue, nodes perform the store-carryforward strategy [13]: they receive the information through physical proximity, store the messages persistently, and forward the data to the next available hop to reach the destination. Since encounters become a relevant requirement for transmissions, MONs define routing algorithms that implement the way in which the information is sent [14].…”

“…Aspects such as the social and contacts graph [19], the community concept [20], the centrality degree [21], and the common interests have become relevant for these algorithms [22]. Thus, this multi-hop routing seeks to benefit from real-world relations to achieve a better performance in the network [14].…”

“…In this article, Refined Social Broadcast (RSB) is introduced. This social-based routing algorithm seeks to improve data delivery benefiting from social behavior [14] using the social influence and the private interests of individuals. For this, the routing scheme makes use of context recognition to quantify encounters and identify the most potentially influential nodes.…”