A Context-Aware Broadcast Protocol for Mobile Wireless Networks

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are a sub-class of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). They are mobile wireless networks that feature inherent connection disruption. In particular such networks are generally non-connected. In this paper we focus on defining a broadcast service which operate on DTNs. A number of protocols solving the problem of broadcasting across DTNs have been proposed in the past, but all of them exhibit a static behavior, i.e. they provide no control parameter. However, at the application level, flexible broadcasting schemes are desirable. In particular, it is important that the user (the source of the broadcast message) can control the way the message gets spread across the network. This paper introduces a new broadcasting protocol dedicated to DTNs, called Context-Aware Broadcasting Protocol (CABP), which adapts its greediness according to the “urgency” (priority) of the broadcast message. A formal presentation of its strategy is proposed and through preliminary experiments, the cost-effectiveness of CABP is enlightened.