ZigZag: A Content-Based Publish/Subscribe Architecture for Human Networks

The wide use of mobile devices gives rise to many novel network applications, which require an efficient communication substrate. These networks, which are comprised solely of human-carried mobile devices, are called human networks (HUNETs). In this paper, we present ZigZag, a content-based publish/subscribe (CBPS) architecture for HUNETs. We deem that CBPS is a natural fit for HUNETs for its inherent anonymity, scalability, and flexibility. However, existing CBPS systems are designed for the Internet, consuming resources beyond the capacity of mobile devices. Additionally, they do not consider user mobility. To address these restrictions, ZigZag employs a transformation-based subscription representation and processing technique, and a Bloom-filter-based message routing and forwarding scheme. The advantages of ZigZag are its low subscription storage consumption and matching complexity. Analytic and simulation results prove that our proposed methods are flexible and more efficient than existing techniques.