EAGER: Topology Design in Socio-Temporal Evolving Wireless Networks

University Of North Carolina At Charlotte, Charlotte NC

Investigators

Abstract

Wireless networks often evolve over time: changes of topology can occur if some nodes appear, disappear, or move around. Such dynamics over time domain are often ignored in protocol design or simply modeled by pure randomness such as in the well-known random walk mobility model. However, in real wireless networks, the node mobility and topology evolution depend heavily on both social and temporal characteristics of the network and network participants. In such socio-temporal evolving wireless networks, traditional communication protocols designed for mobile ad hoc networks and delay tolerant networks are inefficient due to time-varying structures, long delays, and the lack of continuous connectivity. To address this problems, this project seeks a new exploratory study of socio-temporal evolving wireless networks and topology control protocols for such networks, specifically, to (1) analyze and model socio-temporal dynamics of evolving wireless networks by using real-life wireless networking tracing data; (2) design efficient topology control protocols based on these socio-temporal models. The expected results include new socio-temporal models and novel topology control protocols, which can support many new civilian and military applications. The success of this project provides a deep understanding of both social and temporal properties of time-evolving wireless networks and enhances the interdisciplinary research between network science and social science. The research results will be incorporated into networking courses and widely disseminated through conference/journal publications.