Measuring Burden and Routing Fairness in pocket Switched Networks

• Tekenate E. Amah
• Maznah Kamat
• Kamalrunizam Abu Bakar
• Waldir Moreira
• Antonio Oliveira JR
• Marcos A. Batista

Resumo

A Pochet Switched Network (PSN) is formed by users carrying portablehandheld devices such as smartphones and tablets, which store messages, carry them from one point to another via physical movement, and forwards them when a communication opportunity arises. The success of the network thereby depends on the willingness of users to participate. PSN protocols tend to subject most of the routing burden on only a smaller set ofpopular nodes. This results in drastic resource consumption on popular nodes, and may eventually lead to user dissatisfaction, withdrawal, and performance degradation of the network. The key to ensuring fairness in PSN routing lies in the ability to estimate the burden on nodes, utilize this knowledge to provide an acceptably fair utilization of node resources, and evaluate the level of fairness achieved. This paper is concerned with measuring: (i) the burden routing impacts on nodes; and (ii) the fairness of routing algorithms based on the distribution of this burden. First, we propose a Global Relative Burden Detection (GReBurD) mechanism to estimate the burden on nodes. Simulation experiments show that GReBurD is non-scenario specific and better infers the actual burden on nodes as compared with existing approaches. Next, we propose a new metric for evaluating the fairness of PSN forwarding algorithms tha gives a better interpretation of the level of fairness implied.