Enhancing opportunistic networking using location based social networks

Abstract

The wireless communication capabilities of mobile devices have evolved rapidly during the last decade. Exploiting the various connectivity technologies available devices are capable of forming intermittently connected networks; in these networks, defined as Mobile Opportunistic Networks (MONs), a multitude of mobile devices are carried by people and data packets are transferred between these devices opportunistically i.e. when communication opportunities arise. One important issue that arises in MONs concerns routing which must cope with network partitioning, long delays, and dynamic topology changes. Several approaches have been proposed in the literature, including the use of location information and the exploitation of social characteristics. In this paper we aim to enhance MONs during the routing process by combining both location and social information. To achieve this we introduce the use of Location-Based Social Networks (LBSNs) in order to collect necessary information about users' possible future locations. We present the deployment architecture of the proposed system and analyse the business processes and application services, including foreseen components and their interactions.