RAPID: Reliable Probabilistic Dissemination in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel reliable probabilistic dissemination protocol, RAPID, for mobile wireless ad-hoc networks that tolerates message omissions, node crashes, and selfish behavior. The protocol employs a combination of probabilistic forwarding with deterministic corrective measures. The forwarding probability is set based on the observed number of nodes in each one-hop neighborhood, while the deterministic corrective measures include deterministic gossiping as well as timer based corrections of the probabilistic process. These aspects of the protocol are motivated by a theoretical analysis that is also presented in the paper, which explains why this unique protocol design is inherent to ad-hoc networks environments. Since the protocol only relies on local computations and probability, it is highly resilient to mobility and failures. The paper includes a detailed performance evaluation by simulation. We compare the performance and the overhead of RAPID with the performance of other probabilistic approaches. Our results show that RAPID achieves a significantly higher node coverage with a smaller overhead.