Slinky: An Adaptive Protocol for Content Access in Disruption-Tolerant Ad Hoc Networks

The topology of tactical MANETs may vary from well connected to severely disconnected. Applications using the clientserver paradigm often do not perform well in such environments, because they rely on the underlying MANET routing protocols to provide connectivity between arbitrary endpoints, which is often infeasible in tactical MANETs. We consider content-based networking as an alternative paradigm to operate tactical MANETs. Content based networking causes information to flow based on its content rather than the identities of endpoints. The network assumes responsibility for positioning information so that it is easily accessible. This model, rather than the classical client–server model, is naturally suited to dynamic and disruption-tolerant tactical MANETs. We present Slinky, an adaptive protocol for content access in disruption-tolerant ad hoc networks, in particular tactical MANETs. Slinky relies on the community structure inherent in most networks. It consists of a distributed scheme to detect dynamic communities in the network, and a scheme to replicate content across the communities. Slinky does not use any underlying network-wide routing, global topology or geographical information that is often unavailable in tactical MANETs. Slinky is an adaptive and efficient content access protocol that can adapt to a wide range of mobility scenarios. We demonstrate the performance of Slinky in a few tactically relevant scenarios.