Opportunistic dissemination of spatio-temporal resource information in mobile peer to peer networks

We examine the dissemination of availability reports about resources in mobile peer-to-peer networks, where vehicles, pedestrian or sensors communicate with each other via short-range wireless transmission. Each disseminated report represents information about a spatial-temporal event, such as the availability of a parking slot at a particular time or the detection of an injured in an earthquake damaged building. We propose an opportunistic dissemination paradigm, in which a moving object transmits the reports it carries to encountered objects and obtains new reports in exchange. Least relevant reports are discarded after each exchange such as to limit the communication data volume of future exchanges. We analyze by simulations the information accuracy provided by this approach. We also develop and analyze a method to determining the optimal size of the local reports database at a moving object such that a certain accuracy level is reached. The proposed system has the potential to create a completely new information marketplace.