Flex-WiFi: a mixed infrastructure and ad-hoc IEEE 802.11 network for data traffic in a home environment

Mendonca

2011 Third International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS 2011)

2011

Abstract-There is no doubt that networks are becoming increasingly heterogeneous and future internetworks will likely interconnect different types of networks including wired, infrastructure-based wireless as well as infrastructure-less wireless networks, a.k.a., multihop mobile ad-hoc networks (or MANETs). Integrating MANETs to infrastructure-based networks (wired or wireless) allows network coverage to be extended to regions where infrastructure deployment is sparse or nonexistent as well as a way to cope with intermittent connectivity. However, to date there are no comprehensive solutions that integrate MANETs to infrastructure-based networks. In this paper, we introduce a message delivery framework, MeDeHa++ that is able to bridge together infrastructure-based and infrastructure-less networks. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate the benefits of MeDeHa++, especially in terms of the extended coverage it provides as well as its ability to cope with arbitrarily long-lived connectivity disruptions. Another important contribution of this work is to deploy and evaluate our message delivery framework on a real network testbed as well as conduct experiments in "hybrid" scenarios running partly on simulation and partly on real nodes.

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards truly heterogeneous internets: Bridging infrastructure-based and infrastructure-less networks

Mendonca

2011 Third International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS 2011)

2011

“…This can be achieved by making use of power-save mode, in case of IEEE 802.11. A similar kind of approach is proposed in [7]. MeDeHa also attempts to take advantage of more powerful nodes whenever available.…”

Section: Notification Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To extend the network connectivity beyond regions covered by APs, these proposals use different mechanisms such as the use of different frequencies for each mode in Flex-Wifi [7], and a new layer between IP and link layer in MultiNet [8]. AODV+ [9] proposes a scheme to connect the Internet backbone to MANETs by introducing a gateway discovering mechanism.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As will become clear in Section 6, which describes related work, to-date, there are no comprehensive solutions targeting message delivery in heterogeneous networked environments prone to connectivity disruptions. Existing proposals either: (1) extend MANETs to handle episodic connectivity [1,2,3,4], (2) augment the coverage of access points in infrastructure-based wireless networks by, for example, making use of multi-channel radios or switching from infrastructure mode in 802.11 [5,6,7,8], (3) provide MANETs with Internet connectivity by using specialpurpose gateway nodes and a mechanism to discover them as part of route discovery in on-demand MANET routing [9], or (4) handle heterogeneity only at higher layers of the protocol stack (e.g., Bundle Architecture [10,11]). In this paper we propose MeDeHa (Message Delivery in Heterogeneous, Disruption-prone Networks, pronounced "medea") -a general, yet efficient framework for data delivery in heterogeneous internets prone to disruptions in connectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Coping with episodic connectivity in heterogeneous networks

Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems

2008

In this paper, we present an efficient message delivery mechanism that enables distribution/dissemination of messages in an internet connecting heterogeneous networks and prone to disruptions in connectivity. We call our protocol MeDeHa (pronounced "medea") for Message Delivery in Heterogeneous, Disruptionprone Networks. MeDeHa is complementary to the IRTF's Bundle Architecture: while the Bundle Architecture provides storage above the transport layer in order to enable interoperability among networks that support different types of transport layers, MeDeHa stores data at the link layer addressing heterogeneity at lower layers (e.g., when intermediate nodes do not support higher-layer protocols). MeDeHa also takes advantage of network heterogeneity (e.g., nodes supporting more than one network) to improve message delivery. For example, in the case of IEEE 802.11 networks, participating nodes may use both infrastructure-and ad hoc modes to deliver data to otherwise unavailable destinations. Another important feature of MeDeHa is that there is no need to deploy special-purpose nodes such as message ferries, data mules, or throwboxes in order to relay data to intended destinations, or to connect to the backbone network wherever infrastructure is available. The network is able to store data destined to temporarily unavailable nodes for some time depending upon existing storage as well as quality-of-service issues such as delivery delay bounds imposed by the application. We evaluate MeDeHa via simulations using indoor scenarios (e.g. convention centers, exposition halls, museums etc.) and show significant improvement in delivery ratio in the face of episodic connectivity. We also showcase MeDeHa's support for different levels of quality-of-service through traffic differentiation and message prioritization.

“…1 Existing proposals either: (1) extend MANETs to handle episodic connectivity [1][2][3][4], (2) augment the coverage of access points in infrastructurebased (IS-based) wireless networks by, for example, making use of multi-channel radios or switching from infrastructure mode in 802.11 [5][6][7][8], or (3) provide MANETs with Internet connectivity by using special-purpose gateway nodes and a mechanism to discover them as part of route discovery in on-demand MANET routing [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Message delivery in heterogeneous networks prone to episodic connectivity

2011

Wireless Netw

We present an efficient message delivery framework, called MeDeHa, which enables communication in an internet connecting heterogeneous networks that is prone to disruptions in connectivity. MeDeHa is complementary to the IRTF's Bundle Architecture: besides its ability to store messages for unavailable destinations, MeDeHa can bridge the connectivity gap between infrastructure-based and multi-hop infrastructure-less networks. It benefits from network heterogeneity (e.g., nodes supporting more than one network and nodes having diverse resources) to improve message delivery. For example, in IEEE 802.11 networks, participating nodes may use both infrastructure-and ad-hoc modes to deliver data to otherwise unavailable destinations. It also employs opportunistic routing to support nodes with episodic connectivity. One of MeDeHa's key features is that any MeDeHa node can relay data to any destination and can act as a gateway to make two networks inter-operate or to connect to the backbone network. The network is able to store data destined to temporarily unavailable nodes till the time of their expiry. This time period depends upon current storage availability as well as quality-of-service needs (e.g., delivery delay bounds) imposed by the application. We showcase MeDeHa's ability to operate in environments consisting of a diverse set of interconnected networks and evaluate its performance through extensive simulations using a variety of scenarios with realistic synthetic and real mobility traces. Our results show significant improvement in average delivery ratio and a significant decrease in average delivery delay in the face of episodic connectivity. We also demonstrate that MeDeHa supports different levels of qualityof-service through traffic differentiation and message prioritization.