Collaboration in Opportunistic Networks

With the increasing integration of wireless short-range communicationtechnologies in mobile devices, novel applications for spontaneous communication,interaction and collaboration are possible. In this book, wedistinguish between active and passive collaboration. The devices help usersbecome aware of each other and stimulate face-to-face conversation (activecollaboration). Also, autonomous device communication for sharing informationwithout user interaction is possible, i.e., devices pass information toother devices in their vicinity (passive collaboration). Spontaneous communicationof mobile devices leads to so-called opportunistic networks, a new andpromising evolution in mobile ad-hoc networking. They are formed by mobiledevices which communicate with each other while users are in closeproximity.This book investigates opportunistic networks in their entirety. The proposedconcepts comprise system components, a node architecture, a system modeland a simple one-hop communication paradigm for opportunistic networkapplications. One focus of this book is a profile-based data disseminationmechanism.Readers of this book would include graduate students and postgraduateresearchers in both academia and industry, who wish to gain a deeperknowledge of opportunistic networks, its underlying idea and its potentialcapabilities.