Benchmarking of opportunistic networking experiments (original) (raw)

CTG: a connectivity trace generator for testing the performance of opportunistic mobile systems

2007

Abstract The testing of the performance of opportunistic communication protocols and applications is usually done through simulation as i) deployments are expensive and should be left to the final stage of the development process, and ii) the number of varying parameters in thesesystems is so high that it would be very hard to conduct thorough testing of all the functionality within a single deployment.

Filling in the missing link between simulation and application in opportunistic networking

Journal of Systems and Software, 2018

In the domain of Opportunistic Networking, just like in any other domain of computer science, the engineering process should span all stages between an original idea and the validation of its implementation in real conditions. Yet most researchers often stop halfway along this process: they rely on simulation to validate the protocols and distributed applications they design, and neglect to go further. Their algorithms are thus only rarely implemented for real, and when they are, the validation of the resulting code is usually performed at a very small scale. Therefore, the results obtained are hardly repeatable or comparable to others. LEPTON is an emulation platform that can help bridge the gap between pure simulation and fully operational implementation, thus allowing developers to observe how the software they develop (instead of pseudo-code that simulates its behavior) performs in controlled, repeatable conditions. In this paper we present LEPTON, an emulation platform we developed, and we show how existing opportunistic networking systems can be adapted to run with this platform. Taking two existing middleware systems as use cases, we also demonstrate that running demanding scenarios with LEPTON constitute an excellent stress test and a powerful tool to improve the opportunistic systems under test.

A Comparison of Opportunistic Connection Datasets

International Journal of Distributed Systems and Technologies, 2013

Opportunistic networking differs from conventional architectures in the lack of existing network infrastructure, which can cause intermittent connectivity or increased communication delay between nodes. From a message routing perspective, solving these problems require a different set of techniques than those used in more traditional network schemes. Forwarding algorithms in these scenarios aim to improve performance metrics such as message delivery ratio and message delay time, while trying to keep the number of message copies small. A common approach used for testing the performance of opportunistic protocols relies on existing opportunistic contact traces. These datasets are widely available on the Internet, and provide a convenient way of simulating realistic usage scenarios. As such, studying the contact patterns between nodes can lead to useful observations to take into account in future experiments. This paper presents the results of a study on four different datasets. First,...

Repeatable and Reproducible Wireless Networking Experimentation through Trace-based Simulation

2019

To properly validate wireless networking solutions we depend on experimentation. Simulation very often produces less accurate results due to the use of models that are simplifications of the real phenomena they try to model. Networking experimentation may offer limited repeatability and reproducibility. Being influenced by external random phenomena such as noise, interference, and multipath, real experiments are hardly repeatable. In addition, they are difficult to reproduce due to testbed operational constraints and availability. Without repeatability and reproducibility, the validation of the networking solution under evaluation is questionable.In this paper, we show how the Trace-based Simulation (TS) approach can be used to accurately repeat and reproduce real experiments and, consequently, introduce a paradigm shift when it comes to the evaluation of wireless networking solutions. We present an extensive evaluation of the TS approach using the Fed4FIRE+ w-iLab.2 testbed. The re...

Stochastic Performance Evaluation of Routing Strategies in Opportunistic Networks

The opportunistic networks represent a new communication paradigm born from mobile ad hoc networks and delay-tolerant networks. This paradigm is rooted in the application level and builds the network based on the simple concept of connecting nodes to one-hop at a time. This means that nodes in the network are not aware of the destination path, i.e. they just pass the message to the next node. Understanding their behavior will help us to identify the best way to propagate messages depending on the situation. Most studies that try to understand these networks behavior use simulations or empirical tests. Although these approaches are useful, they involve an important eort and do not provide enough exibility to explore the network behavior in an easy and fast way. This paper presents an analytical model of an opportunistic network as a way to overcome this limitation. Protocol designers and developers of communication infrastructures can take advantage of this model to determine the best way to disseminate messages in opportunistic networks, according to particular communication conditions. Two routing strategies for these networks have been formalized in terms of the number of copies and hops allowed for a message. The performance of these routing algorithms was evaluated considering three variables: mean time to arrival of a message, expected number of message copies at the delivery time, and energy consumed in the message transmission. Thus, we show the usability and usefulness of the proposed analytical model.

Using triggers for emulation of opportunistic networking

Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Mobile Opportunistic Networking - MobiOpp '10, 2010

Opportunistic networks do not require the availability of an end-to-end path, but may instead take advantage of temporary connectivity opportunities. Opportunistic networks pose a challenge for network emulation as the traditional emulation setup where application/transport endpoints send/ receive packets from the network following a black box approach is no longer applicable. Instead opportunistic networking protocols and applications need to react to the dynamics of the underlying network beyond what is conveyed through the exchange of packets. In order to support emulation evaluations for such challenging applications we in this paper introduce the concept of emulation triggers that can emulate arbitrary cross-layer feedback and that are synchronized with the emulated scenario. The design and implementation of triggers in the KauNet emulator are described. The use of triggers in the context of opportunistic networking is briefly sketched.

Trace-driven Analysis of Data Forwarding in Opportunistic Networks

2011

We summarize undertaken and ongoing work on the direct and exclusive use of mobile phone traces for assessing the performance of different opportunistic forwarding schemes. Our methods draw on graph-expansion techniques and circumvent the need for more custom simulation software packages. They address a wide range of opportunistic dissemination schemes including controlled flooding and socioaware protocol variants. We outline the general approach and exemplify it with an assessment of centrality metrics as drivers of data dissemination decisions. Finally, we report results on the benefits of identifying community structure out of the similarity of interests across the opportunistic network and discuss their implications for tracebased evaluation.

Analyzing History Quality for Routing Purposes in Opportunistic Network Using Max-Flow

2012

ABSTRACT Most of the existing opportunistic network routing protocols are based on some type of utility function that is directly or indirectly dependent on the past behavior of devices. The past behavior or history of a device is usually referred to as contacts that the device had in the past. Whatever may be the metric of history, most of these routing protocols work on the realistic premise that node mobility is not truly random.

Trace-Based Analysis of Mobile User Behaviors for Opportunistic Networks

The gaining popularity of portable computing and communication devices gives rise to the proposal of opportunistic communication networks among these wirelesscapable devices. There have been several recent studies in the area of opportunistic networking analysis. Some of the work relies on simplistic user models, while other studies are based on relatively small-scale experiments. Both approaches are useful in maintaining simplicity, yet often at the expense of realism.

Establishing Reliability for Efficient Routing in Opportunistic Networks

Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience, 2019

Opportunistic network (Oppnet) is a class of networks where connections between the nodes are not permanent. The nodes are continuously moving and some nodes even switch off their batteries to conserve energy. Reliable delivery of messages in Opportunistic network is one major inherent issue. It is unreliable in the sense that once the source node has forwarded its message, then it will never get to know about its status in the network like whether the message has got discarded at an intermediate node or at the destination node (due to buffer overflow) or the successful delivery of the message has taken place. This work tries to make Oppnet as much reliable as possible. It proposes a reliability protocol named as “Reliability in Oppnet” (RIO). RIO improves the routing in Oppnet and works in parallel with the existing routing protocols. It makes the source node aware about the status of message so that if an error occurs then the source node can take suitable action to resend the mes...