Search Results

1. S. Bayhan, E. Hyytiä, J. Kangasharju and J. Ott, Search in Digital Pockets: Retrieving Remote Content in Mobile Opportunistic Networks, IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, 2016, to appear (bib)

   Abstract: Due to the fierce competition for the wireless spectrum, operators have recently focused on short-range communications which promises higher spectral efficiency, lower energy consumption, and less strain on the operators' core network. Mobile opportunistic communications, i.e., short-range communications without any network assistance, is of considerable practical value since it entails almost no monetary cost and does not rely on any infrastructure. Compared to the extensive work on opportunistic networks, the predominance of video and other content calls for new content-centric approaches and revisiting opportunistic networks with this new perspective. To this end, the motivation of this paper is to explore what mobile opportunistic communications promise in terms of access to the data that is stored in mobile devices and can be accessed via opportunistic search. We abstract the problem domain as three layers, namely network topology, content, and query; and describe the interactions among these components. After reviewing each layer, we introduce several schemes for content availability estimation that do not rely on any information exchange but simply use already available information. Additionally, we highlight some open research directions.