An Adaptive Routing Protocol Based on Fixed Hubs for Opportunistic Networks

This paper presents a new routing protocol for opportunistic networks based on sociological movement model. In this movement model, the mobile nodes have the tendency to visit fixed places frequently. Our approach recognizes the encounter places, called hubs, and employs them as base elements for the routing procedure. Nodes visiting frequently two or more hubs are considered carriers and are used as data mule for message transport. After setting up this infrastructure, routing tables are constructed in the hubs. When a message should be routed, it is sent to a hub and, subsequently, forwarded among them until reaching a hub visited by the destination node. Simulations showed that, for scenarios strongly based on sociological movement, our method outperformed the Spray and Wait for different configurations.