This work focuses on the performance characterization of distributed collaborative ad-hoc networks, focusing on such metrics as the lifetime, latency, and throughput capacity of two such classes of networks. The first part concerns modeling and optimization of static Wireless Sensor Networks, specifically dealing with the issues of energy efficiency, lifetime, and latency. We analyze and characterize these performance measures and discuss various fundamental design tradeoffs. For example, energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks can only be improved at the cost of the latency (the delay incurred during communication). It has been clearly shown that improvement in energy efficiency through data aggregation increases the latency in the network. In addition, sleep-active duty cycling of nodes (devices constituting the network), a commonly employed mechanism to conserve battery lifetime in such networks, has adverse effects on their functionality and capacity. Hence these issues deserve a detailed study. The second part of this work concerns performance modeling of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) and Sparse Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (SPMANETs) in general. We first investigate the effect of modern coding, such as the application of packet-level rateless codes, on the latency, reliability, and energy efficiency of the network. These codes provide us the means to break large messages into smaller packets thereby enabling efficient communication. The work then focuses on developing and formalizing an information-theoretic framework for Delay Tolerant- and other Sparse Mobile Networks. This is enabled by the use of an embedded-Markov-chain approach used for complex queuing-theoretic problems. An important goal of this work is to incorporate a wide range of mobility models into the analysis framework. Yet another important question will be the effect of changing the mobility on the comparative performance of networking protocols. Lastly, the framework will be extended to various communication paradigms such as two-hop vs multi-hop routing, unicast, and multicast.

This dissertation is a study on the design and analysis of novel, optimal routing and rate control algorithms in wireless, mobile communication networks. Congestion control and routing algorithms upto now have been designed and optimized for wired or wireless mesh networks. In those networks, optimal algorithms (optimal in the sense that either the throughput is maximized or delay is minimized, or the network operation cost is minimized) can be engineered based on the classic time scale decomposition assumption that the dynamics of the network are either fast enough so that these algorithms essentially see the average or slow enough that any changes can be tracked to allow the algorithms to adapt over time. However, as technological advancements enable integration of ever more mobile nodes into communication networks, any rate control or routing algorithms based, for example, on averaging out the capacity of the wireless mobile link or tracking the instantaneous capacity will perform poorly. The common element in our solution to engineering efficient routing and rate control algorithms for mobile wireless networks is to make the wireless mobile links seem as if they are wired or wireless links to all but few nodes that directly see the mobile links (either the mobiles or nodes that can transmit to or receive from the mobiles) through an appropriate use of queuing structures at these selected nodes. This approach allows us to design end-to-end rate control or routing algorithms for wireless mobile networks so that neither averaging nor instantaneous tracking is necessary, as we have done in the following three networks. A network where we can easily demonstrate the poor performance of a rate control algorithm based on either averaging or tracking is a simple wireless downlink network where a mobile node moves but stays within the coverage cell of a single base station. In such a scenario, the time scale of the variations of the quality of the wireless channel between the mobile user and the base station can be such that the TCP-like congestion control algorithm at the source can not track the variation and is therefore unable to adjust the instantaneous coding rate at which the data stream can be encoded, i.e., the channel variation time scale is matched to the TCP round trip time scale. On the other hand, setting the coding rate for the average case will still result in low throughput due to the high sensitivity of the TCP rate control algorithm to packet loss and the fact that below average channel conditions occur frequently. In this dissertation, we will propose modifications to the TCP congestion control algorithm for this simple wireless mobile downlink network that will improve the throughput without the need for any tracking of the wireless channel. Intermittently connected network (ICN) is another network where the classic assumption of time scale decomposition is no longer relevant. An intermittently connected network is composed of multiple clusters of nodes that are geographically separated. Each cluster is connected wirelessly internally, but inter-cluster communication between two nodes in different clusters must rely on mobile carrier nodes to transport data between clusters. For instance, a mobile would make contact with a cluster and pick up data from that cluster, then move to a different cluster and drop off data into the second cluster. On contact, a large amount of data can be transferred between a cluster and a mobile, but the time duration between successive mobile-cluster contacts can be relatively long. In this network, an inter-cluster rate controller based on instantaneously tracking the mobile-cluster contacts can lead to under utilization of the network resources; if it is based on using long term average achievable rate of the mobile-cluster contacts, this can lead to large buffer requirements within the clusters. We will design and analyze throughput optimal routing and rate control algorithm for ICNs with minimum delay based on a back-pressure algorithm that is neither based on averaging out or tracking the contacts. The last type of network we study is networks with stationary nodes that are far apart from each other that rely on mobile nodes to communicate with each other. Each mobile transport node can be on one of several fixed routes, and these mobiles drop off or pick up data to and from the stationaries that are on that route. Each route has an associated cost that much be paid by the mobiles to be on (a longer route would have larger cost since it would require the mobile to expend more fuel) and stationaries pay different costs to have a packet picked up by the mobiles on different routes. The challenge in this type of network is to design a distributed route selection algorithm for the mobiles and for the stationaries to stabilize the network and minimize the total network operation cost. The sum cost minimization algorithm based on average source rates and mobility movement pattern would require global knowledge of the rates and movement pattern available at all stationaries and mobiles, rendering such algorithm centralized and weak in the presence of network disruptions. Algorithms based on instantaneous contact, on the contrary, would make them impractical as the mobile-stationary contacts are extremely short and infrequent. / text

現今因無線通訊技術的進步，使得人們能方便地利用智慧型裝置透過3G，4G和Wi-Fi等技術彼此溝通聊天。其中，聊天應用是最受智慧型裝置使用者歡迎的應用程式。大部分的聊天應用程式需依賴網路以達到訊息交換的目的。然而網路的頻寬是非常有限的，當使用者處在擁擠的環境中時，他們可能會面臨資源耗盡問題。此外，例如在漫遊的情況下有些使用者並沒有行動網路的存取，導致使用者無法使用聊天應用。 因此我們希望利用無線廣播傳輸的特性，開發一個應用於間歇性網路連接的聊天應用程式。然而，廣播傳輸的散播策略若沒有設計得宜，可能導致廣播風暴的問題，使得整體網路效能低落。我們研究的目標是要如何在間歇性網路增加訊息的傳輸效率。為了達成此目標，在我們的研究中考量了許多技術要求，如：訊息具有截止時間與優先權特性、多聊天室應用、傳輸效率。 我們提出了一種兩階段基於網絡編碼設計的訊息散播方法，實現在機會性社群網路中的訊息散播。網絡編碼階段，提高網路頻寬的傳輸效率，也能增加網路傳輸的可靠性；預熱階段能提升網路編碼訊息被解開的機率。最後，利用政大的真實軌跡紀錄評估我們所設計的訊息傳播方法。結果顯示，我們的方法是有效率且優於氾濫式的路由協議和一般的網絡編碼散播技術。 / Nowadays, the advancement of wireless communication technology has allowed people to use smart phones to communicate with each other more easily via 3G/4G, Wi-Fi, etc. One kind of popular mobile Apps is “chat” App. Most chat Apps rely on the Internet to exchange the messages. However, the bandwidth of network is limited in some circumstances. When users stay in the crowded environment, they will face the resource depletion problem. Besides, some people may not subscribe to any cellular network access, e.g. in roaming scenarios. Therefore, we want to develop a novel mobile Chat APP in intermittently connected networks. We utilize the characteristic of the wireless broadcast transmission. However, it may cause the broadcast storm problem without careful design. How to increase the efficiency of message delivery in such intermittently connected networks is our research goal. To achieve this, technical issues in our research involve message priority, multi-chatroom, deadline and transmission efficiency. We proposed a two-phase network coding design for message dissemination to enable the multi-hop instant messaging in Opportunistic Mobile Social Networks. The network coding phase can increase the bandwidth utility and transmission efficiency. Moreover, it can improve transmission robustness and adaptability. The warm up phase can increase the decoding probability of coded packets. Finally, we evaluated our approach with real trace data from NCCU. The results showed that our approach is effective and superior to the flooding based routing protocol and the pure network coding technique.