CORP: An Efficient Protocol to Prevent Data Loss in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Abstract

Data replication increases data availability in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). Preventing data loss and increasing data availability in MANETs is a nontrivial problem due to their low-cost hardware, harsh working environments, node mobility, failure of mobile devices from battery exhaustion and node compromise attacks. In addition, different routing algorithms and larger size of the network can cause communication links to fail creating several disjoint partitions which causes data loss. The typical fault-tolerant systems would fail in these conditions. Existing approaches fail due to the limitations caused by their dependence on lower node mobility or constrained by node distribution, unpredictable partitions and routing mechanisms. In this paper, we propose Combinatorial Replication and Partition (CORP) of data which is a combinatorial arrangement with pairwise balanced design property to prevent data loss and increase data availability. Our scheme provides low access latency and reduces communication overhead. By partitioning and replicating data in such a combinatorial arrangement, our scheme directly supports objectoriented constructs in distributed fault-tolerant networks.