With the constant development of wireless technologies, the usageof wireless devices tends to increase even more in the future.Wireless multi-hop networks (WMNs) have emerged as a keytechnology to numerous potential scenarios, ranging from disasterrecovery to wireless broadband internet access. The distributedarchitecture of WMNs enables nodes to cooperatively relay othernode's packets. Because of their advantages over other wirelessnetworks, WMNs are undergoing rapid progress and inspiringnumerous applications. However, many technical issues still existin this field. In this thesis we investigate how Voice over IP(VoIP) and peer-to-peer (P2P) application are influenced bywireless multi-hop network characteristics and how to optimizethem in order to provide scalable communication.We first consider the deployment of VoIP service in wirelessmulti-hop networks, by using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)architecture. Our investigation shows that the centralized SIParchitecture imposes several challenges when deployed in thedecentralized wireless multi-hop environment. We find that VoIPquality metrics are severely degraded as the traffic and number ofmultiple hops to the gateway increase. In the context ofscalability, we further propose four alternative approaches whichavoid current limitations.In the second part of this thesis we tackle the network capacityproblem while providing scalable VoIP service over wirelessmulti-hop networks. The performance evaluation shows the influenceof intra and inter-flow interference in channel utilization, whichdirect impacts the VoIP capacity. In order to avoid the small VoIPpacket overhead, we propose a new adaptive hop-by-hop packetaggregation scheme based on wireless link characteristics. Ourperformance evaluation shows that the proposed scheme can increasethe VoIP capacity by a two-fold gain.The study of peer-to-peer applicability over wireless multi-hopnetworks is another important contribution. A resource lookupapplication is realized through structured P2P overlay. We showthat due to several reasons, such as characteristics of wirelesslinks, multi-hop forwarding operation, and structured P2Pmanagement traffic aggressiveness the performance of traditionalP2P applications is rather low in wireless multi-hop environments.Therefore, we suggested that a trade-off between the P2P lookupefficiency and the P2P management traffic overhead can be achievedwhile maintaining the overlay network consistency in wirelessmulti-hop networks.

[pt] Uma rede móvel ad hoc consiste de uma coleção de dispositivos computacionais portáteis, equipados com uma interface de comunicação sem fio, com uma distribuição arbitrária e dinâmica no espaço, e onde cada host também serve de roteador para os demais hosts, descobrindo e mantendo rotas multi-hop entre os hosts. De uma forma geral, os protocolos para redes móveis ad hoc são mais complexos do que os protocolos para as redes fixas, devido à várias características destas redes, como por exemplo, a topologia dinâmica, a interferência mútua, o acesso compartilhado e a largura de banda restrita dos enlaces sem fio, bem como a operação com energia restrita e menor quantidade de recursos disponíveis nos hosts móveis. Um grande foco da pesquisa em redes móveis ad hoc tem sido o desenvolvimento, a análise e a comparação de protocolos de roteamento. Por isto, existe a demanda por ambientes para a prototipação rápida, a simulação e a depuração de protocolos de roteamento (e de outras camadas) para este tipo de redes. Preferencialmente estes ambientes devem ser flexíveis, ser simples de usar, e permitir definir vários níveis de abstrações para descrever as características físicas da rede móvel, tais como o padrão de mobilidade, os enlaces sem fio, consumo de energia, etc. Esta dissertação trata do projeto e implementação de um framework para a simulação de redes móveis ad hoc que visa facilitar a criação de ambientes para prototipação, teste, análise de desempenho e complexidade de protocolos para este tipo de redes. / [en] A mobile ad hoc network consists of a set of portable computational devices, equipped with a wireless communication interface, that are randomly and dynamically distributed in space, and where each host serves as a router for the other hosts by discovering and maintaining multi-hop routes among the hosts. In general, protocols for mobile ad hoc networks are more complex than equivalent protocols for static networks, due to several properties of such networks, such as its dynamic topology, the mutual interference, concurrent access and smaller communication bandwidth of the wireless links, as well as, operation with restricted amount of energy, and scarce resources of the mobile devices. A main focus of research in mobile ad hoc networks has been the development, analysis and comparison of routing protocols for such networks. Therefore, there is some demand for environments that facilitate the rapid prototyping, the simulation and the debugging of protocols at the network and other layers for such networks. These environments should preferably be flexible, easy to use, and allow for the definition of different levels of abstractions for modeling the main characteristics of the mobile network, such as the pattern of mobility, the wireless links, the energy consumption, etc. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a framework for the simulation of mobile ad hoc networks, which aims at supporting the development of concrete simulation environments for prototyping, testing and doing the complexity and performance analysis of protocols for such networks.

[EN] In recent years, advances in wireless technologies and improved sensing and computational capabilities have led to a gradual transition towards Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and related applications. These applications aim at improving road safety, provide smart navigation, and eco-friendly driving. Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) provide a communication structure for ITS by equipping cars with advanced sensors and communication devices that enable a direct exchange of information between vehicles. Different types of ITS applications rely on two types of messages: periodic beacons and event-driven messages. Beacons include information such as geographical location, speed, and acceleration, and they are only disseminated to a close neighborhood. Differently from beacons, event-driven messages are only generated when a critical event of general interest occurs, and it is spread within a specific target area for the duration of the event. The reliability of information exchange is one of the main issues for vehicularcommunications since the safety of people on the road is directly related to the effectiveness of these transmissions. A Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol must guarantee reliable beacon broadcasting within deadline bounds to all vehicles in the neighbourhood, thereby providing them timely notifications about unsafe driving conditions or other hazardous events. Moreover, infotainment and comfort applications require reliable unicast transmissions that must be taken into account. However, high node mobility, highly dynamic topology, and lack of a central control unit, are issues that make the design of a reliable MAC protocol for vehicular environments a very difficult and challenging task, especially when efficient broadcasting strategies are required. The IEEE 802.11p MAC protocol, an approved amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard, is a random access protocol that is unable to provide guaranteed delay bounds with sufficient reliability in vehicular scenarios, especially under high channel usage. This problem is particularly serious when implementing (semi-) automated driving applications such as platooning, where inter-vehicle spacing is drastically reduced, and the control loop that manages and maintains the platoon requires frequent, timely and reliable exchange of status information (beacons). In this thesis novel protocols compatible with the IEEE 802.11 and 802.11p standards are proposed in order to optimally adjust the contention window size for unicast applications in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) and VANETs. Experimental tests comparing our proposals to existing solutions show that the former are able to improve the packet delivery ratio and the average end-to-end delay for unicast applications. Concerning efficient message diffusion (broadcast) in VANET environments, we proposed token-based MAC solutions to improve the performance achieved by existing 802.11p driving safety applications in different vehicular environments, including highway, urban, and platooning scenarios. Experimental results show that the proposed solutions clearly outperform 802.11p when delay-bounded beacons and event notifications must be delivered. / [ES] Recientemente, los avances en las tecnologías inalámbricas y las mejoras en términos de capacidades de sensorización y computación de los dispositivos electrónicos, han dado lugar a una transición gradual hacia servicios y aplicaciones de los Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte (ITS). Estas aplicaciones tienen como objetivo mejorar la seguridad vial, proporcionar una navegación inteligente, y promover la conducción eco-eficiente. Las redes vehiculares ad hoc (VANETs) proporcionan una infraestructura de comunicaciones para ITS al equipar los coches con sensores avanzados y dispositivos de comunicación que permiten el intercambio directo de información entre vehículos. Los diferentes tipos de aplicaciones ITS se basan en dos tipos de mensajes: mensajes periódicos conocidos como beacons y mensajes asociados a eventos. Los mensajes periódicos incluyen información relativa a la ubicación geográfica, la velocidad y la aceleración, entre otros, y sólo son distribuidos entre los vehículos vecinos. A diferencia de estos beacons, los mensajes asociados a eventos sólo se generan cuando se produce un evento crítico de interés general, el cual se propaga dentro del área de interés de dicho evento y mientras éste siga activo. La fiabilidad del intercambio de información es uno de los principales problemas para las comunicaciones vehiculares, debido principalmente a que las aplicaciones de seguridad dependen directamente de la eficacia de estas transmisiones. Un protocolo de Control de Acceso al Medio (MAC) debe garantizar la difusión fiable de información a todos los vehículos vecinos dentro de unos límites máximos de retardo, proporcionándoles las notificaciones oportunas respecto a condiciones de conducción inseguras y otros eventos peligrosos. Por otra parte, las aplicaciones de información y entretenimiento, así como las aplicaciones orientadas al confort, también requieren transmisiones fiables extremoa-extremo. Sin embargo, la alta movilidad de los vehículos, la variabilidad de la topología, así como la falta de una unidad central de control, son factores que hacen que el diseño de un protocolo MAC fiable para entornos vehiculares sea una tarea especialmente compleja, especialmente cuando son necesarias estrategias de difusión eficientes. El protocolo MAC IEEE 802.11p, una modificación ya aprobada al estándar IEEE 802.11 original para entornos de comunicación vehiculares, es un protocolo de acceso que no es capaz de garantizar unos límites de retardo con la fiabilidad necesaria para estos entornos, especialmente en escenarios de alta utilización del canal inalámbrico. Este problema es particularmente importante a la hora de implementar aplicaciones de conducción (semi-)automática, como el caso de grupos de vehículos donde la separación entre vehículos se reduce drásticamente, y el sistema de control que gestiona y mantiene el grupo requiere de un intercambio frecuente de información fiable y acotado en retardo. En esta tesis se proponen nuevos protocolos MAC compatibles con los estándares IEEE 802.11 y 802.11p basados en el ajuste del tamaño de la ventana de contención para aplicaciones unicast en rede MANETs y VANETs. Los resultados experimentales obtenidos comparando nuestras propuestas con las soluciones existentes muestran que los protocolos propuestos son capaces de mejorar la tasa de entrega de paquetes y el retardo medio extremo-a-extremo para aplicaciones unicast. En lo que respecta a la difusión eficiente de mensajes broadcast en entornos VANET, se han propuesto soluciones MAC basadas en el uso de tokens que mejoran las prestaciones de aplicaciones de conducción segura basadas en el estándar 802.11p, tanto en autopistas, zonas urbanas, y escenarios con grupos de vehículos. Los resultados experimentales muestran que las soluciones propuestas superan claramente al protocolo 802.11p cuando es necesario entregar mensajes y notificaciones de eventos con restricc / [CAT] Recentment, els avan en les tecnologies sense fils i les millores en termes de capacitats de sensorització i computació dels dispositius electrònics, han donat lloc a una transició gradual cap a serveis i aplicacions dels sistemes intelligents de transport (ITS). Aquestes aplicacions tenen com a objectiu millorar la seguretat vial, proporcionar una navegació intelligent, i promoure la conducció ecoeficient. Les xarxes vehiculars ad hoc (VANET) proporcionen una infraestructura de comunicacions per a ITS, ja que equipen els cotxes amb sensors avançats i dispositius de comunicació que permeten l'intercanvi directe d'informació entre vehicles. Els diversos tipus d'aplicacions ITS es basen en dos classes de missatges: missatges periòdics coneguts com a beacons i missatges associats a esdeveniments. Els missatges periòdics inclouen informació relativa a la ubicació geogràfica, la velocitat i l'acceleració, entre uns altres, i només són distribuïts entre els vehicles veïns. A diferència d'aquests beacons, els missatges associats a esdeveniments només es generen quan es produeix un esdeveniment crític d'interès general, el qual es propaga dins de l àrea d'interès d'aquest esdeveniment i mentre aquest seguisca actiu. La fiabilitat de l'intercanvi d'informació és un dels principals problemes per a les comunicacions vehicular, principalment perquè les aplicacions de seguretat depenen directament de l'eficàcia d'aquestes transmissions. Un protocol de control d'accés al medi (MAC) ha de garantir la difusió fiable d'informació a tots els vehicles veïns dins d'uns límits màxims de retard, i proporcionar-los les notificacions oportunes respecte a condicions de conducció insegures i altres esdeveniments perillosos. D'altra banda, les aplicacions d'informació i entreteniment, com també les aplicacions orientades al confort, també requereixen transmissions fiables extrema-extrem. No obstant això, l'alta mobilitat dels vehicles, la variabilitat de la topologia, i la falta d'una unitat central de control, són factors que fan que el disseny d'un protocol MAC fiable per a entorns vehiculars siga una tasca especialment complexa, especialment quan són necessàries estratègies de difusió eficients. El protocol MAC IEEE 802.11p, una modificació ja aprovada a l'estàndard IEEE 802.11 original per a entorns de comunicació vehiculars, és un protocol d'accés que no és capa garantir uns límits de retard amb la fiabilitat necessària per a aquests entorns, especialment en escenaris d'alta utilització del canal sense fil. Aquest problema és particularment important a l'hora d'implementar aplicacions de conducció (semi)automàtica, com el cas de grups de vehicles en què la separació entre vehicles es redueix dràsticament, i el sistema de control que gestiona i manté el grup requereix un intercanvi freqüent d'informació fiable i delimitat en retard. En aquesta tesi es proposen nous protocols MAC compatibles amb els estàndards IEEE 802.11 i 802.11p basats en l'ajust de les dimensions de la finestra de contenció per a aplicacions unicast en xarxes MANET i VANET. Els resultats experimentals obtinguts comparant les nostres propostes amb les solucions existents mostren que els protocols proposats són capa de millorar la taxa de lliurament de paquets i el retard mitjà extrem-a-extrem per a aplicacions unicast. Pel que fa a la difusió eficient de missatges broadcast en entorns VANET, s'han proposat solucions MAC basades en l'ús de tokens que milloren les prestacions d'aplicacions de conducció segura basades en l'estàndard 802.11p, tant en autopistes, zones urbanes, i escenaris amb grups de vehicles. Els resultats experimentals mostren que les solucions proposades superen clarament el protocol 802.11p quan cal lliurar missatges i notificacions d'esdeveniments amb restriccions de latència. / Balador, A. (2016). Design and Evaluation of Efficient Medium Access Control Solutions for Vehicular Environments [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/64073 / TESIS

[EN] This thesis dissertation tackles the problem concerning provision of video streaming services over mobile wireless ad hoc networks. Such networks are characterized by their versatility and flexibility, features that make them particularly suited to be used in many scenarios. However, some limitations inherited of the wireless channel and the mobility of the nodes make difficult to guarantee certain degree of quality of service, which is a required condition to the multimedia applications. Furthermore, with the massive demand of video content, it has become very necessary for mobile ad hoc networks to have an efficient routing and quality of services mechanisms to support this traffic. This is because video streaming services require network to provide sufficient bandwidth and an upper bound in delay, jitter and loss rate. Consequently, traditional best-effort protocols are not adequate. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a comprehensive routing protocol that has a feedback scheme in order to provide information to the application about the network conditions. This protocol has a cross-layer architecture and it incorporates three important enhancements. Firstly, a new route recovery strategy, which provides a mechanism to detect the link failures in a route and re-establish the connections taking into account the conditions of quality of service that have been established during the previous route discovery phase. Secondly, an algorithm for the estimation of the available bandwidth along the route, information that is sent to application layer in order to apply an adaptation procedure that adjusts the bit rate of the video source. This rate-adaptive strategy is performed exploiting the layered scheme of the scalable video coding. In particular, the adaptive method removes, from the scalable video stream, those layers that could not be efficiently supported by network since their bitrates exceed the available bandwidth. The third main feature of the proposed routing protocol is a gateway discovery algorithm to improve the interconnectivity between mobile ad hoc networks and infrastructure-based networks. This algorithm incorporates available bandwidth as a metric during the gateway selection and a dynamic adaptation of some operational parameters such as the size of the proactive area and the frequency of the advertisement messages. Additionally, in order to solve the lack of a software tool to simulate rate-adaptive transmission of scalable video, a new simulation framework had be implemented. This simulation tool is an open source software freely available and, thus, it represents other contribution of this thesis. The results reveal performance improvements in terms of packet delay, dropped packets and the number of link failures while a more efficient use of the available bandwidth is obtained. In terms of video transmission, the results prove that the combined use of the proposed protocol and the scalable video coding provides an efficient platform for supporting rate-adaptive video streaming over mobile ad hoc networks. / [ES] Esta tesis aborda los problemas relacionados con los servicios de video en modo streaming sobre las redes móviles ad hoc. Este tipo de redes se caracterizan por su versatilidad y flexibilidad, lo cual las hace especialmente adecuadas para ser utilizadas en diversos escenarios. Sin embargo, algunas limitaciones inherentes a los enlaces inalámbricos y a la movilidad de los nodos, hace difícil garantizar cierto nivel de calidad de servicio, lo cual es una condición necesaria para el transporte de flujos multimedia. Además, con la masiva demanda de videos desde los dispositivos móviles, hace aún más necesario asegurar un encaminamiento eficiente y un cierto nivel de calidad de servicio en las redes móviles ad hoc. Por lo tanto, los tradicionales protocolos que funcionan bajo el modelo del "mejor esfuerzo" no son adecuados. Esto se debe principalmente a que las aplicaciones multimedia necesitan que la red asegure suficiente ancho de banda y unos valores máximos de retardo, jitter, y tasa de pérdidas. La principal contribución de esta tesis es el desarrollo de un protocolo de encaminamiento que contiene un esquema de realimentación que le permite informar a la aplicación sobre las condiciones de la red. Este protocolo tiene una arquitectura cross-layer e incorpora tres importantes mejoras. Primero, una nueva estrategia de mantenimiento y recuperación de rutas que provee mecanismos para detectar los fallos de conectividad y el posterior re-establecimiento de las conexiones, teniendo en cuenta las condiciones de calidad de servicio que fueron establecidas durante la etapa inicial del descubrimiento de las rutas. Segundo, un algoritmo para la estimación del ancho de banda disponible a lo largo de la ruta, información que es enviada a la capa de aplicación para aplicar un proceso de adaptación que ajusta la tasa de envío de datos de la fuente. Esta estrategia adaptativa de la tasa aprovecha el esquema por capas de la codificación escalable de video. En particular, el método adaptativo elimina del flujo de video escalable, aquellas capas que no pueden ser transmitidas por la red ya que su tasa de bits supera el ancho de banda disponible. La tercera mejora incluida en el protocolo propuesto es un algoritmo de descubrimiento de gateways para mejorar la interconectividad entre las redes móviles ad hoc y las redes basadas en infraestructura. Dicho algoritmo utiliza el ancho de banda disponible para seleccionar el mejor gateway, así mismo, realiza una adaptación dinámica de algunos parámetros operacionales como el alcance y la frecuencia de los mensajes anuncio. Adicionalmente, ha sido desarrollada una herramienta software para simular la transmisión adaptativa de video escalable sobre redes móviles ad hoc. Esta herramienta de simulación es un software de código abierto y constituye otra contribución más de esta tesis. Los resultados muestran mejoras en el funcionamiento de las redes relacionadas con el retardo, la tasa de pérdidas de paquetes y el número de fallos en la conectividad. Simultáneamente, se obtiene un uso más eficiente del ancho de banda. En relación a la calidad del video transmitido, los resultados demuestran que la utilización del protocolo propuesto junto con la codificación de video escalable, provee un eficiente sistema para la transmisión adaptativa de video escalable sobre redes móviles ad hoc. / [CAT] Aquesta tesi aborda els problemes relacionats amb els serveis de vídeo en mode streaming sobre les xarxes mòbils ad hoc. Aquest tipus de xarxes es caracteritzen per la seva versatilitat i flexibilitat, la qual cosa les fa especialment adequades per a ser utilitzades en diversos escenaris. No obstant això, algunes limitacions inherents als enllaços sense fils i a la mobilitat dels nodes, fa difícil garantir cert nivell de qualitat de servei, cosa que és una condició necessària per al transport de fluxos multimèdia. A més, amb la massiva demanda de vídeos des dels dispositius mòbils, fa encara més necessari assegurar un encaminament eficient i un cert nivell de qualitat de servei en les xarxes mòbils ad hoc. Per tant, els tradicionals protocols que funcionen sota el model del "millor esforç" no són adequats. Això es deu principalment al fet que les aplicacions multimèdia necessiten que la xarxa asseguri suficient ample de banda i uns valors màxims de retard, jitter, i taxa de pèrdues. La principal contribució d'aquesta tesi és el desenvolupament d'un protocol d'encaminament que conté un esquema de realimentació que li permet informar l'aplicació sobre les condicions de la xarxa. Aquest protocol té una arquitectura cross-layer i incorpora tres importants millores. Primer, una nova estratègia de manteniment i recuperació de rutes que proveeix mecanismes per detectar les fallades de connectivitat i el posterior re-establiment de les connexions, tenint en compte les condicions de qualitat de servei que van ser establertes durant l'etapa inicial del descobriment de les rutes. Segon, un algoritme per a l'estimació de l'ample de banda disponible al llarg de la ruta, informació que és enviada a la capa d'aplicació per aplicar un procés d'adaptació que ajusta la taxa d'enviament de dades de la font. Aquesta estratègia adaptativa de la taxa aprofita l'esquema per capes de la codificació escalable de vídeo. En particular, el mètode adaptatiu elimina del flux de vídeo escalable aquelles capes que no poden ser transmeses per la xarxa ja que la seva taxa de bits supera l'ample de banda disponible. La tercera millora inclosa en el protocol proposat és un algoritme de descobriment de gateways per millorar la interconnectivitat entre les xarxes mòbils ad hoc i les xarxes basades en infraestructura. Aquest algoritme utilitza l'ample de banda disponible per seleccionar el millor gateway, així mateix, realitza una adaptació dinàmica d'alguns paràmetres operacionals com l'abast i la freqüència dels missatges anunci. Addicionalment, ha estat desenvolupada una eina programari per a simular la transmissió adaptativa de vídeo escalable sobre xarxes mòbils ad hoc. Aquesta eina de simulació és un programari de codi obert i constitueix una altra contribució més d'aquesta tesi. Els resultats mostren millores en el funcionament de les xarxes relacionades amb el retard, la taxa de pèrdues de paquets i el nombre de fallades en la connectivitat. Simultàniament, se n'obté un ús més eficient de l'ample de banda. En relació a la qualitat del vídeo transmès, els resultats demostren que la utilització del protocol proposat juntament amb la codificació de vídeo escalable, proveeix un eficient sistema per a la transmissió adaptativa de vídeo escalable sobre xarxes mòbils ad hoc. / Castellanos Hernández, WE. (2015). Quality of Service Routing and Mechanisms for Improving Video Streaming over Mobile Wireless Ad hoc Networks [Tesis doctoral]. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/53238 / TESIS

Distributed systems like e-commerce and e-market places, peer-to-peer networks, social networks, and mobile ad hoc networks require cooperation among the participating entities to guarantee the formation and sustained existence of network services. The reliability of interactions among anonymous entities is a significant issue in such environments. The distributed entities establish connections to interact with others, which may include selfish and misbehaving entities and result in bad experiences. Therefore, trustworthiness evaluation using trust management techniques has become a significant issue in securing these environments to allow entities decide on the reliability and trustworthiness of other entities, besides it helps coping with defection problems and stimulating entities to cooperate. Recent models on evaluating trustworthiness in distributed systems have heavily focused on assessing trustworthiness of entities and isolate misbehaviours based on single trust metrics. Less effort has been put on the investigation of the subjective nature and differences in the way trustworthiness is perceived to produce a composite multidimensional trust metrics to overcome the limitation of considering single trust metric. In the light of this context, this thesis concerns the evaluation of entities’ trustworthiness by the design and investigation of trust metrics that are computed using multiple properties of trust and considering environment. Based on the concept of probabilistic theory of trust management technique, this thesis models trust systems and designs cooperation techniques to evaluate trustworthiness in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). A recommendation based trust model with multi-parameters filtering algorithm, and multidimensional metric based on social and QoS trust model are proposed to secure MANETs. Effectiveness of each of these models in evaluating trustworthiness and discovering misbehaving nodes prior to interactions, as well as their influence on the network performance has been investigated. The results of investigating both the trustworthiness evaluation and the network performance are promising. / Ministry of Higher Education in Libya and the Libyan Cultural Attaché bureau in London

No description available.

In ant societies, and, more in general, in insect societies, the activities of the individuals, as well as of the society as a whole, are not regulated by any explicit form of centralized control. On the other hand, adaptive and robust behaviors transcending the behavioral repertoire of the single individual can be easily observed at society level. These complex global behaviors are the result of self-organizing dynamics driven by local interactions and communications among a number of relatively simple individuals. The simultaneous presence of these and other fascinating and unique characteristics have made ant societies an attractive and inspiring model for building new algorithms and new multi-agent systems. In the last decade, ant societies have been taken as a reference for an ever growing body of scientific work, mostly in the fields of robotics, operations research, and telecommunications. Among the different works inspired by ant colonies, the Ant Colony Optimization metaheuristic (ACO) is probably the most successful and popular one. The ACO metaheuristic is a multi-agent framework for combinatorial optimization whose main components are: a set of ant-like agents, the use of memory and of stochastic decisions, and strategies of collective and distributed learning. It finds its roots in the experimental observation of a specific foraging behavior of some ant colonies that, under appropriate conditions, are able to select the shortest path among few possible paths connecting their nest to a food site. The pheromone, a volatile chemical substance laid on the ground by the ants while walking and affecting in turn their moving decisions according to its local intensity, is the mediator of this behavior. All the elements playing an essential role in the ant colony foraging behavior were understood, thoroughly reverse-engineered and put to work to solve problems of combinatorial optimization by Marco Dorigo and his co-workers at the beginning of the 1990's. From that moment on it has been a flourishing of new combinatorial optimization algorithms designed after the first algorithms of Dorigo's et al., and of related scientific events. In 1999 the ACO metaheuristic was defined by Dorigo, Di Caro and Gambardella with the purpose of providing a common framework for describing and analyzing all these algorithms inspired by the same ant colony behavior and by the same common process of reverse-engineering of this behavior. Therefore, the ACO metaheuristic was defined a posteriori, as the result of a synthesis effort effectuated on the study of the characteristics of all these ant-inspired algorithms and on the abstraction of their common traits. The ACO's synthesis was also motivated by the usually good performance shown by the algorithms (e.g., for several important combinatorial problems like the quadratic assignment, vehicle routing and job shop scheduling, ACO implementations have outperformed state-of-the-art algorithms). The definition and study of the ACO metaheuristic is one of the two fundamental goals of the thesis. The other one, strictly related to this former one, consists in the design, implementation, and testing of ACO instances for problems of adaptive routing in telecommunication networks. This thesis is an in-depth journey through the ACO metaheuristic, during which we have (re)defined ACO and tried to get a clear understanding of its potentialities, limits, and relationships with other frameworks and with its biological background. The thesis takes into account all the developments that have followed the original 1999's definition, and provides a formal and comprehensive systematization of the subject, as well as an up-to-date and quite comprehensive review of current applications. We have also identified in dynamic problems in telecommunication networks the most appropriate domain of application for the ACO ideas. According to this understanding, in the most applicative part of the thesis we have focused on problems of adaptive routing in networks and we have developed and tested four new algorithms. Adopting an original point of view with respect to the way ACO was firstly defined (but maintaining full conceptual and terminological consistency), ACO is here defined and mainly discussed in the terms of sequential decision processes and Monte Carlo sampling and learning. More precisely, ACO is characterized as a policy search strategy aimed at learning the distributed parameters (called pheromone variables in accordance with the biological metaphor) of the stochastic decision policy which is used by so-called ant agents to generate solutions. Each ant represents in practice an independent sequential decision process aimed at constructing a possibly feasible solution for the optimization problem at hand by using only information local to the decision step. Ants are repeatedly and concurrently generated in order to sample the solution set according to the current policy. The outcomes of the generated solutions are used to partially evaluate the current policy, spot the most promising search areas, and update the policy parameters in order to possibly focus the search in those promising areas while keeping a satisfactory level of overall exploration. This way of looking at ACO has facilitated to disclose the strict relationships between ACO and other well-known frameworks, like dynamic programming, Markov and non-Markov decision processes, and reinforcement learning. In turn, this has favored reasoning on the general properties of ACO in terms of amount of complete state information which is used by the ACO's ants to take optimized decisions and to encode in pheromone variables memory of both the decisions that belonged to the sampled solutions and their quality. The ACO's biological context of inspiration is fully acknowledged in the thesis. We report with extensive discussions on the shortest path behaviors of ant colonies and on the identification and analysis of the few nonlinear dynamics that are at the very core of self-organized behaviors in both the ants and other societal organizations. We discuss these dynamics in the general framework of stigmergic modeling, based on asynchronous environment-mediated communication protocols, and (pheromone) variables priming coordinated responses of a number of ``cheap' and concurrent agents. The second half of the thesis is devoted to the study of the application of ACO to problems of online routing in telecommunication networks. This class of problems has been identified in the thesis as the most appropriate for the application of the multi-agent, distributed, and adaptive nature of the ACO architecture. Four novel ACO algorithms for problems of adaptive routing in telecommunication networks are throughly described. The four algorithms cover a wide spectrum of possible types of network: two of them deliver best-effort traffic in wired IP networks, one is intended for quality-of-service (QoS) traffic in ATM networks, and the fourth is for best-effort traffic in mobile ad hoc networks. The two algorithms for wired IP networks have been extensively tested by simulation studies and compared to state-of-the-art algorithms for a wide set of reference scenarios. The algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks is still under development, but quite extensive results and comparisons with a popular state-of-the-art algorithm are reported. No results are reported for the algorithm for QoS, which has not been fully tested. The observed experimental performance is excellent, especially for the case of wired IP networks: our algorithms always perform comparably or much better than the state-of-the-art competitors. In the thesis we try to understand the rationale behind the brilliant performance obtained and the good level of popularity reached by our algorithms. More in general, we discuss the reasons of the general efficacy of the ACO approach for network routing problems compared to the characteristics of more classical approaches. Moving further, we also informally define Ant Colony Routing (ACR), a multi-agent framework explicitly integrating learning components into the ACO's design in order to define a general and in a sense futuristic architecture for autonomic network control. Most of the material of the thesis comes from a re-elaboration of material co-authored and published in a number of books, journal papers, conference proceedings, and technical reports. The detailed list of references is provided in the Introduction.

A evolução tecnológica das redes de telecomunicações sem fio permite que organizações de redes mais inteligentes sejam vislumbradas. É possível imaginar um sistema de telefonia formado por dispositivos móveis autônomos que não necessite de nenhuma infraestrutura pré-estabelecida para trocar informações com seus vizinhos, de acordo com o alcance do raio de transmissão. Assim, as informações poderiam ser repassadas de nó em nó, formando uma rede de múltiplos saltos. A ausência de uma entidade central também poderia melhorar a tolerância a falhas do sistema, principalmente por gerar uma redundância de caminhos possíveis entre os nós. Analisamos o desempenho desse sistema em diferentes cenários e a sensibilidade à variação de parâmetros como o raio de transmissão, interferências, a quantidade de nós e número de saltos máximo permitido (TTL), e testamos estratégias de comunicação com raio fixo, raio variável, número de vizinhos mínimo e etc., através de modelagem e simulação baseada em agentes. De maneira geral, a estratégia de transmissão com raio variável apresentou a melhor taxa de mensagens recebidas e a menor média de saltos até o destino, porém com maior nível de energia do sistema. A estratégia de raio fixo apresentou a menor energia total gasta pelo sistema para enviar as mensagens, porém, com uma taxa menor de mensagens recebidas. Além disso, avaliamos que as principais causas de perdas de pacotes estão associadas com o aumento da mobilidade, a redução do TTL e as interferências, sendo que cada uma contribui mais ou menos de acordo com o cenário estudado. / The technological development of Wireless Networks leads to more intelligent networks structures. One can imagine a mobile data system consisting of autonomous mobile devices that do not require any pre-established infrastructure to exchange information one with another, limited mainly by the transmission radius. Thus, data could be forwarded from node to node, forming a multihop network. The absence of a central entity could also improve fault tolerance by allowing redundant paths for nodes to communicate. We analyzed the performance of the system in different scenarios and system behavior regarding parameters variations such as transmission radius, interferences, the number of nodes and maximum allowed number of hops (TTL), and tested communication strategies with fixed radius, variable radius, minimum number of neighbors to transmit, etc., through modeling and simulation-based agents. In general, variable radius strategy had the best rate of incoming messages and the lowest average number of hops to the destination. However it presented the higher level of system energy. In one hand, fixed radius strategy presented the lowest total energy expended by the system to send messages, but, in the other hand, the rate of incoming messages was lower. Furthermore, we discovered the main causes of packet losses are associated with increased mobility, reducing the TTL and interference, each of which contributes more or less in accordance with the scenario.

A evolução tecnológica das redes de telecomunicações sem fio permite que organizações de redes mais inteligentes sejam vislumbradas. É possível imaginar um sistema de telefonia formado por dispositivos móveis autônomos que não necessite de nenhuma infraestrutura pré-estabelecida para trocar informações com seus vizinhos, de acordo com o alcance do raio de transmissão. Assim, as informações poderiam ser repassadas de nó em nó, formando uma rede de múltiplos saltos. A ausência de uma entidade central também poderia melhorar a tolerância a falhas do sistema, principalmente por gerar uma redundância de caminhos possíveis entre os nós. Analisamos o desempenho desse sistema em diferentes cenários e a sensibilidade à variação de parâmetros como o raio de transmissão, interferências, a quantidade de nós e número de saltos máximo permitido (TTL), e testamos estratégias de comunicação com raio fixo, raio variável, número de vizinhos mínimo e etc., através de modelagem e simulação baseada em agentes. De maneira geral, a estratégia de transmissão com raio variável apresentou a melhor taxa de mensagens recebidas e a menor média de saltos até o destino, porém com maior nível de energia do sistema. A estratégia de raio fixo apresentou a menor energia total gasta pelo sistema para enviar as mensagens, porém, com uma taxa menor de mensagens recebidas. Além disso, avaliamos que as principais causas de perdas de pacotes estão associadas com o aumento da mobilidade, a redução do TTL e as interferências, sendo que cada uma contribui mais ou menos de acordo com o cenário estudado. / The technological development of Wireless Networks leads to more intelligent networks structures. One can imagine a mobile data system consisting of autonomous mobile devices that do not require any pre-established infrastructure to exchange information one with another, limited mainly by the transmission radius. Thus, data could be forwarded from node to node, forming a multihop network. The absence of a central entity could also improve fault tolerance by allowing redundant paths for nodes to communicate. We analyzed the performance of the system in different scenarios and system behavior regarding parameters variations such as transmission radius, interferences, the number of nodes and maximum allowed number of hops (TTL), and tested communication strategies with fixed radius, variable radius, minimum number of neighbors to transmit, etc., through modeling and simulation-based agents. In general, variable radius strategy had the best rate of incoming messages and the lowest average number of hops to the destination. However it presented the higher level of system energy. In one hand, fixed radius strategy presented the lowest total energy expended by the system to send messages, but, in the other hand, the rate of incoming messages was lower. Furthermore, we discovered the main causes of packet losses are associated with increased mobility, reducing the TTL and interference, each of which contributes more or less in accordance with the scenario.

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile nodes forming a temporary network without the need for base stations or any other pre–existing network infrastructure. In a peer-to-peer fashion, mobile nodes can communicate with each other by using wireless multihop communication. Due to its low cost, high flexibility, fast network establishment and self-reconfiguration, ad hoc networking has received much interest during the last ten years. However, without a fixed infrastructure, frequent path changes cause significant numbers of routing packets to discover new paths, leading to increased network congestion and transmission latency over fixed networks. Many on-demand routing protocols have been developed by using various routing mobility metrics to choose the most reliable routes, while dealing with the primary obstacle caused by node mobility. ¶ In the first part, we have developed an analysis framework for mobility metrics in random mobility model. Unlike previous research, where the mobility metrics were mostly studied by simulations, we derive the analytical expressions of mobility metrics, including link persistence, link duration, link availability, link residual time, link change rate and their path equivalents. We also show relationships between the different metrics, where they exist. Such exact expressions constitute precise mathematical relationships between network connectivity and node mobility. ¶ We further validate our analysis framework in Random Walk Mobility model (RWMM). Regarding constant or random variable node velocity, we construct the transition matrix of Markov Chain Model through the analysis of the PDF of node separation after one epoch. In addition, we present intuitive and simple expressions for the link residual time and link duration, for the RWMM, which relate them directly to the ratio between transmission range and node speed. We also illustrate the relationship between link change rate and link duration. Finally, simulation results for all mentioned mobility metrics are reported which match well the proposed analytical framework. ¶ In the second part, we investigate the mobility metric applications on caching strategies and hierarchy routing algorithm. When on-demand routing employed, stale route cache information and frequent new-route discovery in processes in MANETs generate considerable routing delay and overhead. This thesis proposes a practical route caching strategy to minimize routing delay and/or overhead by setting route cache timeout to a mobility metric, the expected path residual time. The strategy is independent of network traffic load and adapts to various non-identical link duration distributions, so it is feasible to implement in a real-time route caching scheme. Calculated results show that the routing delay achieved by the route caching scheme is only marginally more than the theoretically determined minimum. Simulation in NS-2 demonstrates that the end-to-end delay from DSR routing can be remarkably reduced by our caching scheme. By using overhead analysis model, we demonstrate that the minimum routing overhead can be achieved by increasing timeout to around twice the expected path residual time, without significant increase in routing delay. ¶ Apart from route cache, this thesis also addresses link cache strategy which has the potential to utilize route information more efficiently than a route cache scheme. Unlike some previous link cache schemes delete links at some fixed time after they enter the cache, we proposes using either the expected path duration or the link residual time as the link cache timeout. Simulation results in NS-2 show that both of the proposed link caching schemes can improve network performance in the DSR by reducing dropped data packets, latency and routing overhead, with the link residual time scheme out-performing the path duration scheme. ¶ To deal with large-scale MANETs, this thesis presents an adaptive k-hop clustering algorithm (AdpKHop), which selects clusterhead (CH) by our CH selection metrics. The proposed CH selection criteria enable that the chosen CHs are closer to the cluster centroid and more stable than other cluster members with respect to node mobility. By using merging threshold which is based on the CH selection metric, 1-hop clusters can merge to k-hop clusters, where the size of each k-hop cluster adapts to the node mobility of the chosen CH. Moreover, we propose a routing overhead analysis model for k-hop clustering algorithm, which is determined by a range of network parameters, such as link change rate (related to node mobility), node degree and cluster density. Through the overhead analysis, we show that an optimal k-hop cluster density does exist, which is independent of node mobility. Therefore, the corresponding optimal cluster merging threshold can be employed to efficiently organise k-hop clusters to achieve minimum routing overhead, which is highly desirable in large-scale networks. ¶ The work presented in this thesis provides a sound basis for future research on mobility analysis for mobile ad hoc networks, in aspects such as mobility metrics, caching strategies and k-hop clustering routing protocols.