METHOD FOR BALANCING LOADS IN MOBILE WIRELESS AD-HOC NETWORKS

• US 20110261692A1
• Filed: 04/21/2010
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telefonica SA
• Original Assignee: Telefonica SA
• Inventors: Serra, Josep Maria Pujol, Rodriguez, Pablo, Toledo, Alberto Lopez
• Application Number:
  US12/764,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20110261692A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/127 based on intermediate node capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for balancing the traffic load without affecting the performance or efficiency or efficiency in Pocket Switched Networks, comprised within the so-called Delay-Tolerant Networks. The method introduces the concepts of strength and affinity to make decisions for routing messages in the Pocket Switched Network.

Claims

1. A method for balancing traffic load in a Pocket Switched Network comprising:

estimating strength of interaction between nodes in the network;

determining affinity of the nodes in the network; and

controlling queues of each of the nodes and balancing the traffic load based on the strength and the affinity

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the strength of interaction between the nodes is estimated at various time scales.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein two different estimators working in different time scales are used for the calculation of the strength of interaction, a first estimator indicating short-term interaction between the nodes, and a second estimator indicating long-term interaction between the nodes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the estimators decrease exponentially with the difference between a current time and a time of last contact between nodes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the estimators decrease over time at an exponential rate r_σ

and r_λ

for the estimators of the short-term and long-term interaction respectively, where r_λ

<

<

r_σ

.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein when the affinity of each of the node is calculated based on a social status of each of the node which is considered functionally equivalent to a length of the queue of said each node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the affinity is used to determine sharing, storage and forwarding of messages between the nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the network jointly uses the strength and affinity for routing messages in the network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the strength increases by one each time there is an interaction between two of the nodes.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein a utility measure is determined for the nodes based on the long-term and short-term interactions and a message is forwarded only if the utility measure exceeds a threshold.

11. The method of claim 1, where a node I would forward an addressed message to node k through a node j if it meets any of the following conditions:

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is an ad-hoc network.

13. A Pocket Switched Network comprising:

a plurality of nodes;

a strength measure indicating the strength of interaction between the nodes;

an affinity measure indicating affinity of the nodes;

wherein the network controls queues of each of the nodes and balancing the traffic load based on the strength measure and the affinity measure.

14. The network of claim 13 wherein the strength of interaction between the nodes is estimated at various time scales.

15. The network of claim 14, wherein two different estimators working in different time scales are used for the calculation of the strength of interaction, a first estimator indicating short-term interaction between the nodes, and a second estimator indicating long-term interaction between the nodes.

16. The network of claim 15, wherein the estimators decrease exponentially with the difference between a current time and a time of last contact between nodes.

17. The network of claim 16, wherein the estimators decrease over time at an exponential rate r_σ

and r_λ

for the estimators of the short-term and long-term interaction respectively, where r_λ

<

<

r_σ

.

18. The network of claim 13, wherein when the affinity of each of the node is calculated based on a social status of each of the node which is considered functionally equivalent to a length of the queue of said each node.

19. The network of claim 18, wherein the affinity is used to determine sharing, storage and forwarding of messages between the nodes.

20. The network of claim 13, wherein the network jointly uses the strength and affinity for routing messages in the network.

21. The network of claim 13, wherein the strength increases by one each time there is an interaction between two of the nodes.

22. The network of claim 15, wherein a utility measure is determined for the nodes based on the long-term and short-term interactions and a message is forwarded only if the utility measure exceeds a threshold.

23. The network of claim 13, where a node i would forward an addressed message to node k through a node j if it meets any of the following conditions:

24. The network of claim 13, wherein the network is an ad-hoc network.