Advances in computing and wireless communication technologies have increased interest in smart vehicles, vehicles equipped with significant computing, communication and sensing capabilities to provide services to travelers. Smart vehicles can be exploited to improve driving safety and comfort as well as optimize surface transportation systems. Wireless communications among vehicles and between vehicles and roadside infrastructures represent an important class of vehicle communications. One can envision creating an integrated radio network leveraging various wireless technologies that work together in a seamless fashion. Based on cost-performance tradeoffs, different network configurations may be appropriate for different environments. An understanding of the properties of different vehicular network architectures is absolutely necessary before services can be successfully deployed. Based on this understanding, efficient data services (e.g., data dissemination services) can be designed to accommodate application requirements. This thesis examines several research topics concerning both the evaluation and design of vehicular networks. We explore the properties of vehicle-to-vehicle (v2v) communications. We study the spatial propagation of information along the road using v2v communications. Our analysis identifies the vehicle traffic characteristics that significantly affect information propagation. We also evaluate the feasibility of propagating information along a highway. Several design alternatives exist to build infrastructure-based vehicular networks. Their characteristics have been evaluated in a realistic vehicular environment. Based on these evaluations, we have developed some insights into the design of future broadband vehicular networks capable of adapting to varying vehicle traffic conditions. Based on the above analysis, opportunistic forwarding that exploit vehicle mobility to overcome vehicular network partitioning appears to be a viable approach for data dissemination using v2v communications for applications that can tolerate some data loss and delay. We introduce a methodology to design enhanced opportunistic forwarding algorithms. Practical algorithms derived from this methodology have exhibited different performance/overhead tradeoffs. An in-depth understanding of wireless communication performance in a vehicular environment is necessary to provide the groundwork for realizing reliable mobile communication services. We have conducted an extensive set of field experiments to uncover the performance of short-range communications between vehicles and between vehicles and roadside stations in a specific highway scenario.

Face à la prolifération des technologies mobiles et à l’augmentation du volume des données utilisées par les applications mobiles, les périphériques consomment de plus en plus de bande passante. Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrons sur les réseaux Wi-Fi denses comme cela peut être le cas lors d’événements à grande échelle (ex: conférences, séminaire, etc.) où un serveur doit acheminer des données à un grand nombre de périphériques dans une fenêtre temporelle réduite. Dans ce contexte, la consommation de bande passante et les interférences engendrées par les téléchargements parallèles d’une donnée volumineuse par plusieurs périphériques connectés au même réseau dégradent les performances. Les technologies de communication Device-to-Device (D2D) comme Bluetooth ou Wi-Fi Direct permettent de mieux exploiter les ressources du réseau et d’améliorer les performances pour offrir une meilleure qualité d’expérience (QoE) aux utilisateurs. Dans cette thèse nous proposons deux approches pour l’amélioration des performances de la dissémination de données. La première approche, plus adaptée à une configuration mobile, consiste à utiliser des connexions D2D en point-à-point sur une topologie plate pour les échanges de données. Nos évaluations montrent que notre approche permet de réduire les temps de dissémination jusqu’à 60% par rapport à l’utilisation du Wi-Fi seul. De plus, nous veillons à avoir une répartition équitable de la charge énergétique sur les périphériques afin de préserver les batteries les plus faibles du réseau. Nous avons pu voir qu’avec la prise en compte de l’autonomie des batteries et de la bande passante, la sollicitation des batteries les plus faibles peut être réduite de manière conséquente. La deuxième approche, plus adaptée à des configurations statiques, consiste à mettre en place des topologies hiérarchiques dans lesquelles on regroupe les périphériques par clusters. Dans chaque cluster, un périphérique est élu pour être le relais des données qu’il recevra depuis le serveur et qu’il transmettra à ses voisins. Cette approche permet de gérer plus efficacement les interférences en adaptant la puissance du signal afin de limiter la portée des clusters. Dans ce cas, nous avons observé jusqu’à 30 % de gains en temps de dissémination. Dans la continuité des travaux de cette thèse, nous discutons de plusieurs perspectives qu’il serait intéressant d’entreprendre par la suite, notamment l’adaptation automatique du protocole de dissémination à l’état du réseau et l’utilisation simultanée des deux types de topologie plate et hiérarchique. / We are witnessing a proliferation of mobile technologies and an increasing volume of data used by mobile applications. Devices consume thus more and more bandwidth. In this thesis, we focus on dense Wi-Fi networks during large-scale events (such as conferences). In this context, the bandwidth consumption and the interferences caused by the parallel downloads of a large volume of data by several mobile devices that are connected to the same Wi-Fi network degrade the performance of the dissemination. Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technologies such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct can be used in order to improve network performance to deliver better QoE to users. In this thesis we propose two approaches for improving the performance of data dissemination. The first approach, more suited to a dynamic configuration, is to use point-to-point D2D connections on a flat topology for data exchange. Our evaluations show that our approach can reduce dissemination times by up to 60% compared to using Wi-Fi alone. In addition, we ensure a fair distribution of the energy load on the devices to preserve the weakest batteries in the network. We have observed that by taking into account the battery life and the bandwidth of mobile devices, the solicitation of the weakest batteries can be reduced significantly. The second approach, more adapted to static configurations, consists in setting up hierarchical topologies by gathering mobile devices in small clusters. In each cluster, a device is chosen to relay the data that it receives from the server and forwards it to its neighbors. This approach helps to manage interference more efficiently by adjusting the signal strength in order to limit cluster reach. In this case, we observed up to 30% gains in dissemination time. In the continuity of this thesis work, we discuss three perspectives which would be interesting to be undertaken, in particular the automatic adaptation of the dissemination to the state of the network and the simultaneous use of both topology types, flat and hierarchical.

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a subclass of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in which the mobile nodes are vehicles; these vehicles are autonomous systems connected by wireless communication on a peer-to-peer basis. They are self-organized, self-configured and self-controlled infrastructure-less networks. This kind of network has the advantage of being able to be set-up and deployed anywhere and anytime because it has no infrastructure set-up and no central administration. Distributing information between these vehicles over long ranges in such networks, however, is a very challenging task, since sharing information always has a risk attached to it especially when the information is confidential. The disclosure of such information to anyone else other than the intended parties could be extremely damaging, particularly in military applications where controlling the dissemination of messages is essential. This thesis therefore provides a review of the issue of security in VANET and MANET; it also surveys existing solutions for dissemination control. It highlights a particular area not adequately addressed until now: controlling information flow in VANETs. This thesis contributes a policy-based framework to control the dissemination of messages communicated between nodes in order to ensure that message remains confidential not only during transmission, but also after it has been communicated to another peer, and to keep the message contents private to an originator-defined subset of nodes in the VANET. This thesis presents a novel framework to control data dissemination in vehicle ad hoc networks in which policies are attached to messages as they are sent between peers. This is done by automatically attaching policies along with messages to specify how the information can be used by the receiver, so as to prevent disclosure of the messages other than consistent with the requirements of the originator. These requirements are represented as a set of policy rules that explicitly instructs recipients how the information contained in messages can be disseminated to other nodes in order to avoid unintended disclosure. This thesis describes the data dissemination policy language used in this work; and further describes the policy rules in order to be a suitable and understandable language for the framework to ensure the confidentiality requirement of the originator. This thesis also contributes a policy conflict resolution that allows the originator to be asked for up-to-date policies and preferences. The framework was evaluated using the Network Simulator (NS-2) to provide and check whether the privacy and confidentiality of the originators’ messages were met. A policy-based agent protocol and a new packet structure were implemented in this work to manage and enforce the policies attached to packets at every node in the VANET. Some case studies are presented in this thesis to show how data dissemination can be controlled based on the policy of the originator. The results of these case studies show the feasibility of our research to control the data dissemination between nodes in VANETs. NS-2 is also used to test the performance of the proposed policy-based agent protocol and demonstrate its effectiveness using various network performance metrics (average delay and overhead).

Pendant les deux dernières décennies, les technologies de réseaux ad-hoc de véhicules (VANETs : Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks) ont été développées sous l’impulsion du monde de la recherche comme de l’industrie, étant donnés les liens des VANETs avec la sécurité routière, l’internet des objets (IoT/WoT : Internet of Things/Web of Things) pour les systèmes de transport intelligents (ITS : Intelligent Transportation Systems), les villes intelligentes et les villes vertes. Composant essentiel des VANETs, les protocoles de communication inter-véhicules (IVC : Inter-Vehicle Communication) font face à des défis techniques, en particulier à cause de la diversité des applications dans lesquelles ils sont impliqués. Dans cette thèse, après une présentation des VANETs et de l’état de l’art des IVC, nous proposons un protocole de dissémination de données, TrAD, conçu pour diffuser de manière efficiente des messages d’une source vers les véhicules présents dans la zone d’intérêt (ROI : Range of Interest). TrAD se base sur les états du trafic routier et du trafic réseau pour adapter localement la stratégie et les paramètres de transmission des données afin d’optimiser les performances des applications qui l’utilisent. De plus, un algorithme de classification des clusters locaux de véhicules est conçu pour permettre l’usage de TrAD sur autoroute aussi bien qu’en ville. Pour éviter l’encombrement des canaux de communication, un mécanisme illustratif de contrôle de la congestion reposant sur une approche distribuée est utilisé. Trois protocoles IVC de l’état de l’art ont été comparés à TrAD dans des scénarios réalistes de simulation, basés sur différentes villes réelles, différents trajets et densités véhiculaires. Les performances de TrAD surpassent celles des protocoles de référence en termes de taux de délivrance des paquets (PDR : Packet Delivery Ratio), nombre de transmissions et latence. De plus, nous montrons que TrAD est tolérant, dans une certaine mesure, aux erreurs sur les données GPS. Pour s’assurer de la qualité des simulations, nous avons étudié le modèle de déplacement employé dans le simulateur de trafic, puis couplé ce dernier au simulateur de réseau, afin que les deux s’échangent des informations en temps-réel. Grâce à la compréhension acquise lors de l’analyse du modèle de déplacement, nous avons pu développer un simulateur de conduite de tramway pour la T2C (Transports en Commun de l’agglomération Clermontoise). Des tests menés sur le matériel roulant nous ont permis d’élaborer des modèles de déplacement fidèles correspondants aux diverses situations rencontrées par le tramway. L’affichage de la simulation est assuré par un flux vidéo ajusté plutôt que des images de synthèse, ce qui permet de limiter le coût de développement tout en garantissant un certain réalisme dans l’affichage. Ce projet est soutenu par la T2C pour une durée de deux ans. / In the last two decades, Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANETs) were developed significantly by both academic institute and industries association, since VANETs originate from traffic safety and are also an important application of Internet of Things / Web of Things (IoT/WoT) for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), Intelligent Vehicles and Smart Cities. As an essential component of VANETs, Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) protocols face many critical challenges, in particular, because they relate to various specific applications. In this thesis, after elaborating on related knowledge of VANETs and state-of-the-art of IVC protocols, we propose a data dissemination protocol for vehicular networking, named TrAD, to disseminate efficiently warning messages from a source to vehicles in a range of interest (ROI). TrAD considers the status of road traffic and network traffic to adapt locally the strategy and the parameters of transmissions in order to optimize the global performance of IVC application. Moreover, a local vehicular cluster classification algorithm is designed to support TrAD to be performed in both highway and urban scenarios. In addition, an illustrative congestion control mechanism is used to avoid channel congestion using a distributed approach. Three state-of-the-art IVC protocols have been compared with TrAD by means of realistic simulations. The performance of all those protocols is evaluated quantitatively in various scenarios by taking into account different real road maps, trafic routes and vehicular densities. Compared with the reference protocols, TrAD gains an outstanding overall performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, number of transmissions and delay. Furthermore, TrAD also can tolerate a reasonable degree of GPS drift while achieving efficient data dissemination. In order to ensure the quality of simulations, we deeply investigated the mobility model of road traffic simulator, and then performed the bidirectionally coupled simulation in which the network simulator and the road trafic simulator can exchange information in real-time. Upon understanding of the mobility model, we obtained a chance to develop a low-cost tram simulator for the local public transportation provider, the T2C (Transports en Commun de l’agglomération Clermontoise). We attempt to design accurate mobility models from different scenarios for the specific type of tram used by T2C. Real world trials are carried out to explore the key parameters required by theoretical deduction for our mobility model. Moreover, the display GUI relies on a video stream, rather than 3D graphics, which can reduce the cost while guaranteeing the quality of service. This project was supported for two years by T2C.

This thesis investigates both theoretical and practical aspects of the design and analysis of modern error-control coding schemes, namely low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and rateless codes for unequal error protection (UEP). It also studies the application of modern error-control codes in efficient data dissemination in wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. Two methodologies for the design and analysis of UEP-LDPC codes are proposed. For these proposed ensembles, density evolution formulas over the binary erasure channel are derived and used to optimize the degree distribution of the codes. Furthermore, for the first time, rateless codes that can provide UEP are developed. In addition to providing UEP, the proposed codes can be used in applications for which unequal recovery time is desirable, i.e., when more important parts of data are required to be recovered faster than less important parts. Asymptotic behavior of the UEP-rateless codes under the iterative decoding is investigated. In addition, the performance of the proposed codes is examined under the maximum-likelihood decoding, when the codes have short to moderate lengths. Results show that UEP-rateless codes are able to provide very low error rates for more important bits with only a subtle loss in the performance of less important bits. Moreover, it is shown that given a target bit error rate, different parts of the information symbols can be decoded after receiving different numbers of encoded symbols. This implies that information can be recovered in a progressive manner, which is of interest in many practical applications such as media-on-demand systems. This work also explores fundamental research problems related to applying error-control coding such as rateless coding to the problem of reliable and energy-efficient broadcasting in multihop wireless ad-hoc sensor networks. The proposed research touches on the four very large fields of wireless networking, coding theory, graph theory, and percolation theory. Based on the level of information that each node has about the network topology, several reliable and energy-efficient schemes are proposed, all of which are distributed and have low complexity of implementation. The first protocol does not require any information about the network topology. Another protocol, which is more energy efficient, assumes each node has local information about the network topology. In addition, this work proposes a distributed scheme for finding low-cost broadcast trees in wireless networks. This scheme takes into account various parameters such as distances between nodes and link losses. This protocol is then extended to find low-cost multicast trees. Several schemes are extensively simulated and are compared.

Τα ασύρματα δίκτυα αισθητήρων αποτελούν μία πρωτοποριακή τεχνολογία που ήρθε στο προσκήνιο πριν από μία περίπου δεκαετία. Η καινοτομία της τεχνολογίας αυτής έγκειται στη συνεργασία μεγάλου αριθμού κόμβων περιορισμένων πόρων χαμηλής κατανάλωσης ισχύος σε μία μόνο εφαρμογή. Η εργασία αυτή ασχολείται με θέματα ενδιάμεσου λογισμικού σε ασύρματα δίκτυα αισθητήρων. Συγκεκριμένα, μελετάται το πρωτόκολλο Deluge που αποτελεί τη βασική επιλογή για ασύρματο προγραμματισμό δικτύων αισθητήρων που «τρέχουν» το λειτουργικό σύστημα πραγματικού χρόνου TinyOS. Παρέχοντας έναν αξιόπιστο και αποδοτικό μηχανισμό διάδοσης δεδομένων μέσω της δυαδικής εικόνας του κώδικα, το Deluge κατέχει ρόλο-κλειδί στη βαθμίδα ενδιάμεσου λογισμικού των ασύρματων δικτύων αισθητήρων. Η μελέτη και κατανόηση του πρωτοκόλλου αυτού επέτρεψε την υλοποίηση σε nesC ενός απλούστερου πρωτοκόλλου που αξιοποιεί τα βασικά χαρακτηριστικά του μηχανισμού μετάδοσης δεδομένων του Deluge. Σε συνέχεια αυτής της υλοποίησης, αξιολογήθηκε εκ νέου η διαδικασία μετάδοσης πραγματοποιώντας δοκιμές τόσο σε πραγματικές τοπολογίες κόμβων αισθητήρων (motes) που υποστηρίζουν το πρότυπο ασύρματης επικοινωνίας IEEE 802.15.4 όσο και σε περιβάλλον προσομοίωσης (TOSSIM). Τα προκύπτοντα αποτελέσματα επιβεβαιώνουν την αποδοτική μετάδοση δεδομένων σε δίκτυα αισθητήρων αξιοποιώντας το πρωτόκολλο Deluge. Η παρούσα εργασία αποτελείται από έξι κεφάλαια. Το πρώτο κεφάλαιο παρέχει πληροφορίες για το γνωστικό αντικείμενο της εργασίας. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζεται μία μελέτη στην ερευνητική περιοχή των ασύρματων δικτύων αισθητήρων και στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο εξετάζονται τα βασικά χαρακτηριστικά ενός κόμβου αισθητήρων που υποστηρίζει το πρότυπο IEEE 802.15.4. Στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζεται η έννοια του ασύρματου προγραμματισμού στα δίκτυα αισθητήρων και μελετάται εκτενώς το πρωτόκολλο Deluge. Στο πέμπτο κεφάλαιο περιγράφεται η υλοποίηση που έλαβε χώρα και η αξιολόγηση αυτής με τους μηχανισμούς που αναφέρθηκαν παραπάνω. Τέλος, στο έκτο κεφάλαιο παρατίθενται τα συμπεράσματα που εξήχθησαν από την εκπόνηση της εν λόγω εργασίας και δίνονται ορισμένες κατευθύνσεις για μελλοντική ενασχόληση με το Deluge και με το ενδιάμεσο λογισμικό στα δίκτυα αισθητήρων γενικότερα. / Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) emerged about a decade ago, representing a new class of computing with large numbers of resource-constrained computing nodes cooperating on a single application. This thesis deals with middleware issues in wireless sensor networks. Specifically, we study Deluge that suggests the de facto over-the-air programming protocol for WSNs working under TinyOS. Providing a reliable and efficient data dissemination mechanism via the binary image of the program code, Deluge plays a key role in the middleware layer of WSNs. Gaining insight into Deluge, we implemented in the nesC programming language a simplified protocol that incorporates the main features of Deluge data dissemination mechanism. This implementation allowed us to evaluate further the propagation procedure of Deluge using a two-mechanism evaluation framework. Carrying out experiments both in real-world deployments being compatible with IEEE 802.15.4 radio and in a simulation environment (TOSSIM), we verified the efficient data propagation in WSNs, using Deluge. This dissertation follows a structure of six chapters. In the first chapter, we give a piece of information about the subject field of this thesis. In the second chapter, we present an overall survey of the research area of WSNs and in the third chapter we examine the basic features of a sensor node (mote) whose wireless communication is based on an IEEE 802.15.4 compliant radio. In the fourth chapter, we discuss network programming in WSNs and we analyze the data dissemination mechanism of Deluge. In the fifth chapter, we discuss our implementation and its evaluation. Finally, in the sixth chapter, we conclude the thesis emphasizing the experience derived from that and we give some directions for future work with Deluge and middleware in WSNs generally.