Performance Analysis of a Content Distribution Method Using Pseudo-Multicast with File Piecing for Wireless Multi-hop Environment

Nowadays, wireless LAN is included in many portable devices and is widely deployed, which has correspondingly increased the potential to distribute documents electronically. However, a wireless network shares bandwidth with multiple terminals under media access control, so the bandwidth is not used efficiently when the same content is simultaneously transferred to each terminal with unicast. Therefore, we have proposed a method for content distribution in wireless networks that achieves faster downloads by combining file piecing and pseudo-multicast, allowing multiple terminals to overhear packets of the same content. Applying this method to a multi-hop wireless network should improve content distribution efficiency by collecting the frames from different hops. However, the overheard frames have to be adequately provisioned against losses and disordered delivery order due to different hops. To handle these problems, we have improved the byte stream management method in the overhearing node to efficiently obtain the required pieces. The proposed method is evaluated in a test bed.