Opportunistic Networking & Computing

The research activity of the CASA team aims to support communication and service delivery in harsh environments, especially in partially or intermittently mobile networks. It focuses mainly on mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and studies how the DTN (Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking) approach can help support communication and services when these networks are disconnected.

Part of this work therefore consists of designing opportunistic routing protocols for disconnected MANETs (D-MANETs), and implementing these protocols in communication middleware so that they can be tested under real-world conditions.
In addition, the CASA team is studying how distributed applications can be designed and implemented for networks whose characteristics change spontaneously and unpredictably. The term "Opportunistic Computing" was recently introduced in the literature to refer to a new computing paradigm that relies exclusively on pairwise contacts between mobile hosts.

The team thus strives to contribute to the development of this computing paradigm by designing methods, models and middleware tools that make it easier for programmers to meet the challenges presented by the development of applications for D-MANETs.

Research directions

• Support for communications in Disconnected Mobile Ad Hoc NETworks (D-MANETs)
• Communications in Disconnected Wireless Sensor Networks (D-WSN)
• Support for distributed services in D-MANETs
• Distributed applications for D-MANETs and trials in real conditions
• Application fields: m-Health, tactical networking, social networks, robotics, maritime communication…

Keywords

Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN); Opportunistic Networking/Computing; Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs); Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs); Service-Oriented Architecture