A Dynamic Resource-Aware Routing Protocol in Resource-Constrained Opportunistic Networks

Abstract

Recently, Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) are considered to be \none of the most attractive developments of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks that \nhave arisen thanks to the development of intelligent devices. OppNets are \ncharacterized by a rough and dynamic topology as well as unpredictable contacts and contact times. Data is forwarded and stored in intermediate nodes \nuntil the next opportunity occurs. Therefore, achieving a high delivery ratio in \nOppNets is a challenging issue. It is imperative that any routing protocol use \nnetwork resources, as far as they are available, in order to achieve higher network performance. In this article, we introduce the Resource-Aware Routing \n(ReAR) protocol which dynamically controls the buffer usage with the aim of \nbalancing the load in resource-constrained, stateless and non-social OppNets. \nThe ReAR protocol invokes our recently introduced mutual informationbased weighting approach to estimate the impact of the buffer size on the \nnetwork performance and ultimately to regulate the buffer consumption in \nreal time. The proposed routing protocol is proofed conceptually and simulated using the Opportunistic Network Environment simulator. Experiments \nshow that the ReAR protocol outperforms a set of well-known routing protocols such as EBR, Epidemic MaxProp, energy-aware Spray and Wait and \nenergy-aware PRoPHET in terms of message delivery ratio and overhead ratio.