Project Abstract:
Research on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing has recently extended to
the mobile paradigm, where peers are now mobile computing
devices with wireless communication capabilities. Compared to the
wired Internet environment, P2P computing in the mobile
environment brings forth a number of new challenges. Among the
key challenges include: (1) Relatively unstable and variable wireless
connectivity; (2) Heterogeneity and limited resources of mobile
devices, such as in operating power, storage, and processing speed;
To mitigate the connectivity issue, we propose a two-tier Mobile Ad
Hoc Network (MANET), in which mobile vehicle fleets such as city
buses form the higher tier that serves as a communication backbone
for lower tier peer devices. Previous studies have shown that the
regularity and predictability of the bus traveling pattern are
properties that can be used to establish a mobile backbone that
offers an element of stability to the wireless connectivity. With this
underlying stable networking infrastructure, P2P applications may be
deployed with greater ease and better performance in a mobile
environment (e.g. in terms of search and download success).
To resolve the problem of inefficiency and performance bottlenecks
caused by some less capable or resource limited peers, we further
leverage on the presence of buses, by allowing them to participate in
the system as “super peers”. Unlike”ordinary peer devices such as
PDAs, which are constrained by size and power, vehicular peers
are less physically constrained and hence can have greater
resource capacity for managing queries and responses of ordinary
peers. Detrimental effects on performance by less capable peers can
therefore be minimized. A detailed design for a super-peer based
structured P2P system based on mobile fleets has been proposed. |