An intermittently connected network (ICN) is defined as a mobile network that uses cooperation between nodes to facilitate communication. This cooperation consists of nodes carrying messages from other nodes to help deliver them to their destinations. An ICN does not require an infrastructure and routing information is not retained by the nodes. While this may be a useful environment for message dissemination, it creates routing challenges. In particular, providing satisfactory delivery performance while keeping the overhead low is difficult with no network infrastructure or routing information. This dissertation explores solutions that lead to a high delivery probability while maintaining a low overhead ratio. The efficiency of message fragmentation in ICNs is first examined. Next, the performance of the routing is investigated when erasure coding and network coding are employed in ICNs. Finally, the use of social networking in ICNs to achieve high routing performance is considered. The aim of this work is to improve the better delivery probability while maintaining a low overhead ratio. Message fragmentation is shown to improve the CDF of the message delivery probability compared to existing methods. The use of erasure coding in an ICN further improve this CDF. Finally, the use of network coding was examined. The advantage of network coding over message replication is quantified in terms of the message delivery probability. Results are presented which show that network coding can improve the delivery probability compared to using just message replication. / Graduate / 0544 / 0984 / ahmedbdr@engr.uvic.ca

When internet-mediated messaging and social networking applications were introduced in mobile phones, mobile messaging entered a new paradigm. Users can easily create profiles and communicate with other users instantly at anytime of day and anywhere in the world. This paradigm however, has brought forward new privacy issues. Over the course of this exegesis I aimed to explore different aspects of privacy issues related to mobile messaging, including users' awareness and the control of the privacy issues when using social networking messaging. This was demonstrated by conducting a project, which involved development of a mobile phone application and a role-playing game. The project created a frictional scenario of users communicating via mobile messaging. My research revealed that the participants lacked awareness of privacy violations when using mobile messaging, and tended not to modify their behaviours immediately when privacy breaches arose. This research contributes to the existing body of research in the area of mobile messaging privacy, and advocated user awareness of privacy issues in this domain. It could potentially be used as a base for future research.