A probabilistic replication and storage scheme for large wireless networks of small devices

Nodes in wireless ad hoc networks are often limited in terms of resources, such as storage, power, and bandwidth. A downside of this is the fact that local storage at one node cannot accommodate the vast amount of data contained in the network. In this paper, we present SharedState, a scheme for storage, replication, and distribution of common-interest data in wireless networks of resource-constrained devices (e.g. sensor nodes or embedded devices). SharedState works under the assumption that individual nodes would greatly benefit from having access to the wealth of information in the network, but are unable to store it locally at once. SharedState strives to make data available to every node by providing local access to a subset of the whole collection of data items in the network at any moment in time and ensuring that this subset is updated periodically. This is accomplished by probabilistic propagation and replication of data items, ensuring the availability and persistence of information in the face of changing network conditions. We evaluate the performance of SharedState by studying the effectiveness with which nodes can gather information from the network. In addition, we optimize the bandwidth usage of our proposed solution by minimizing unnecessary communication based on feedback from the local neighborhood.