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Network-wide broadcast (simply broadcast) is a frequently used operation in wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs). One promising practical approach for energy-efficient broadcast is to use localized algorithms to minimize the number of nodes involved in the propagation of the broadcast messages. In this context, the minimum forwarding set problem (MFSP) (also known as multipoint relay (MPR) problem) has received a considerable attention in the research community. Even though the general form of the problem is shown to be NP-complete, the complexity of the problem has not been known under the practical application context of ad hoc networks. In this paper, we present a polynomial time algorithm to solve the MFSP for wireless network under unit disk coverage model. We prove the existence of some geometrical properties for the problem and then propose a polynomial time algorithm to build an optimal solution based on these properties; To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first polynomial time solution to the MFSP under the unit disk coverage model. We believe that the work presented in this paper will have an impact on the design and development of new algorithms for several wireless network applications including energy-efficient multicast, broadcast, and topology control protocols for WANETs and sensor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bluetooth networks can be constructed as piconets or scatternets depending on the number of nodes in the network. Although piconet construction is a well-defined process specified in Bluetooth standards, scatternet formation policies and algorithms are not well specified. Among many solution proposals for this problem, only a few of them focus on efficient usage of bandwidth in the resulting scatternets. In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm for the scatternet formation problem that dynamically constructs and maintains a scatternet based on estimated traffic flow rates between nodes. The algorithm is adaptive to changes and maintains a constructed scatternet for bandwidth-efficiency when nodes come and go or when traffic flow rates change. Based on simulations, the paper also presents the improvements in bandwidth-efficiency and reduction in energy consumption provided by the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major applications of wireless ad hoc networks is to extend the Internet coverage and support pervasive and efficient data dissemination and sharing. To reduce data access cost and delay, caching has been widely used as an important technique. The efficiency of data access in caching systems largely depends on the cost for maintaining cache consistency, which can be high in wireless ad hoc networks due to network dynamism. Therefore, to make better trade-off between cache consistency and the cost incurred, it would be highly desirable to provide users the flexibility in specifying consistency requirements for their applications. In this paper, we propose a general consistency model called Probabilistic Delta Consistency (PDC), which integrates the flexibility granted by existing consistency models, covering them as special cases. We also propose the Flexible Combination of Push and Pull (FCPP) algorithm which satisfies user-specified consistency requirements under the PDC model. The analytical model of FCPP is used to derive the balance of minimizing the consistency maintenance cost and ensuring the specified consistency requirement. Extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate whether FCPP can satisfy arbitrarily specified consistency requirements, and whether FCPP works cost-effectively in dynamic wireless ad hoc networks. The evaluation results show that FCPP can adaptively tune itself to satisfy various user-specified consistency requirements. Moreover, it can save the traffic cost by up to 50 percent and reduce the query delay by up to 40 percent, compared with the widely used Pull with TTR algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource discovery is an important process for finding suitable nodes that satisfy application requirements in large loosely coupled distributed systems. Besides internode heterogeneity, many of these systems also show a high degree of intranode dynamism, so that selecting nodes based only on their recently observed resource capacities can lead to poor deployment decisions resulting in application failures or migration overheads. However, most existing resource discovery mechanisms rely mainly on recent observations to achieve scalability in large systems. In this paper, we propose the notion of a resource bundle--a representative resource usage distribution for a group of nodes with similar resource usage patterns--that employs two complementary techniques to overcome the limitations of existing techniques: resource usage histograms to provide statistical guarantees for resource capacities and clustering-based resource aggregation to achieve scalability. Using trace-driven simulations and data analysis of a month-long PlanetLab trace, we show that resource bundles are able to provide high accuracy for statistical resource discovery, while achieving high scalability. We also show that resource bundles are ideally suited for identifying group-level characteristics (e.g., hot spots, total group capacity). To automatically parameterize the bundling algorithm, we present an adaptive algorithm that can detect online fluctuations in resource heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract-Connected Dominating Sets (CDSs) can serve as virtual backbones for wireless networks. A smaller virtual backbone incurs less maintenance overhead. Unfortunately, computing a minimum size CDS is NP-hard, and thus most researchers in this area concentrate on how to construct smaller CDSs. However, people neglected other important metrics of network, such as diameter and average hop distances between two communication parties. In this paper, we investigate the problem of constructing quality CDS in terms of size, diameter, and Average Backbone Path Length (ABPL). We present two centralized algorithms having constant performance ratios for its size and diameter of the constructed CDS. Especially, the size of CDS computed by the second algorithm is no more than 6.906 times of its optimal solution. Furthermore, we give its distributed version, which not only can be implemented in real situation easily but also considers energy to extend network lifetime. In our simulation, we show that in average the distributed algorithm not only generates a CDS with smaller diameter and ABPL than related work but also suppresses its size well. We also show that it is more energy efficient than others in prolonging network lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract-An unweighted graph has density p and growth rate k if the number of nodes in every ball with radius r is bounded by pr[supk]. The communication graphs of wireless networks and peer-to-peer networks often have constant bounded density and small growth rate. In this paper, we study the trade-off between two quality measures for routing in growth-restricted graphs. The two measures we consider are the stretch factor, which measures the lengths of the routing paths, and the load-balancing ratio, which measures the evenness of the traffic distribution. We show that if the routing algorithm is required to use paths with stretch factor c, then its load-balancing ratio is bounded by O(p[sup1/k](n/c)[sup1-1/k]), and the bound is tight in the worst case. We show the application and extension of the trade-off to the wireless network routing and VLSI layout design. We also present a load-balanced routing algorithm with the stretch factor constraint in an online setting, in which the routing requests come one by one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classical definition of a self-stabilizing algorithm assumes generally that there are no faults in the system long enough for the algorithm to stabilize. Such an assumption cannot be applied to ad hoc mobile networks characterized by their highly dynamic topology. In this paper, we propose a self-stabilizing leader election algorithm that can tolerate multiple concurrent topological changes. By introducing the time-interval-based computation concept, the algorithm ensures that a network partition can within a finite time converge to a legitimate state even if topological changes occur during the convergence time. Our simulation results show that our algorithm can ensure that each node has a leader over 99 percent of the time. We also give an upper bound on the frequency at which network components merge to guarantee the convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a comprehensive framework for mining Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks (WASNs), which is able to extract patterns regarding the sensors' behaviors. The main goal of determining behavioral patterns is to use them to generate rules that will improve the WASN's Quality of Service by participating in the resource management process or compensating for the undesired side effects of wireless communication. The proposed framework consists of 1) a formal definition of sensor behavioral patterns and sensor association rules, 2) a novel representation structure that we refer to as the Positional Lexicographic Tree (PLT) that is able to compress the data gathered for the mining process and thus allows the fast and efficient mining of sensor behavioral patterns, and 3) a distributed data extraction mechanism to prepare the data required for mining sensor behavioral patterns. Several experimental studies have been conducted to evaluate our PLT structure and our proposed data extraction algorithms for mining wireless sensor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication is a primary source of energy consumption in wireless sensor networks! Due to resource constraints, the sensor nodes may not have enough energy to report every reading to the base station over a required network lifetime. This paper investigates data collection strategies in lifetime-constrained wireless sensor networks. Our objective is to maximize the accuracy of data collected by the base station over the network lifetime. Instead of sending sensor readings periodically, the relative importance of the readings is considered in data collection: the sensor nodes send data updates to the base station when the new readings differ more substantially from the previous ones. We analyze the optimal update strategy and develop adaptive update strategies for both individual and aggregate data collections. We also present two methods to cope with message losses in wireless transmission. To make full use of the energy budgets, we design an algorithm to allocate the numbers of updates allowed to be sent by the sensor nodes based on their topological relations. Experimental results using real data traces show that, compared with the periodic strategy, adaptive strategies significantly improve the accuracy of data collected by the base station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract-This paper addresses fault-tolerant topology control in a heterogeneous wireless sensor network consisting of several resource-rich supernodes, used for data relaying, and a large number of energy-constrained wireless sensor nodes. We introduce the κ-degree Anycast Topology Control (κ-ATC) problem, with the objective of selecting each sensor's transmission range such that each sensor is κ-vertex supernode connected and the total power consumed by sensors is minimized. Such topologies are needed for applications that support sensor data reporting, even in the event of failures of up to κ — 1 sensor nodes. We propose three solutions for the κ-ATC problem: a κ-approximation algorithm, a greedy centralized algorithm that minimizes the maximum transmission range between all sensors, and a distributed and localized algorithm that incrementally adjusts sensors' transmission range such that the κ-vertex supernode connectivity requirement is met. Extended simulation results are presented to verify our approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy optimization is important in wireless ad hoc networks, where node battery power is usually limited. Research results show that such a network can exploit controlled node mobility to reduce communication-related energy consumption. However, node movement itself usually consumes energy. In this paper we study the energy optimization problem that accounts for energy costs associated with both communication and physical node movement. We refer to this model as in formed mobility. We first review the theoretical foundations on how to reduce total communication energy consumption, as well as increase system lifetime, by combining node movement and transmission power adaptation. Next, we describe and analyze the informed mobility optimization problem. Based on this analysis, we introduce localized algorithms and protocols for informed mobility. We propose iMobif, a flow-based informed mobility framework that collects network information for mobility decision making. We demonstrate how to use iMobif to minimize total communication energy consumption as well as to maximize system lifetime. We compare the performance of iMobif to that of systems with no mobility or only cost-unaware mobility. Simulation results show iMobif is effective in reducing energy consumption relative to such systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topology control algorithms have been proposed to maintain network connectivity while improving energy efficiency and increasing network capacity. However, by reducing the number of links in the network, topology control algorithms actually decrease the degree of routing redundancy. As a result, the derived topology is more susceptible to node failures or departures. In this paper, we resolve this problem by enforcing k-vertex connectivity in the topology construction process. We propose a fully localized algorithm, Fault-tolerant Local Spanning Subgraph (FLSS), that can preserve k-vertex connectivity and is mm-max optimal among all strictly localized algorithms (i.e., FLSS minimizes the maximum transmission power used in the network, among all strictly localized algorithms that preserve k-vertex connectivity). It can also be proved that FLSS outperforms two other existing localized algorithms in terms of reducing the transmission power. We also discuss how to relax several widely used assumptions in topology control to increase the practical utility of FLSS. Simulation results indicate that, compared with existing distributed/localized fault-tolerant topology control algorithms, FLSS not only has better power-efficiency, but also leads to higher network capacity. Moreover, FLSS is robust with respect to position estimation errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-pruning is an effective scheme for efficient broadcasting in ad hoc wireless networks. In a self-pruning broadcast protocol, a node may not forward a broadcast packet if a certain self-pruning condition is satisfied based on the neighborhood information. In a static network with an ideal MAC layer, only a subset of nodes forward the broadcast packet and still guarantee the complete network delivery. Various protocols have been proposed with different self-pruning conditions. Recently, a generic self-pruning protocol was proposed by Wu and Dai [21], which combines the strength of previous conditions and is more effective. In this paper, we first propose an enhanced version of the generic protocol, which is more elegant in interpreting existing protocols and has a simpler correctness proof. Then, we evaluate the performance of the family of self-pruning protocols under various network situations with ns2. The objective is to observe the efficiency and reliability of these protocols as a function of network density, congestion, and mobility, and provide a guideline of implementation in the "real world." Our performance analysis reveals that the protocol reliability is barely affected by packet collision. However, most self-pruning protocols suffer from low delivery ratio in highly mobile networks. We further explore various techniques that improve the delivery ratio and show that both high efficiency and reliability can be achieved in highly mobile networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature, there exit two types of cache consistency maintenance algorithms for mobile computing environments: stateless and stateful. In a stateless approach, the server is unaware of the cache contents at a mobile user (MU). Even though stateless approaches employ simple database management schemes, they lack scalability and ability to support user disconnectedness and mobility. On the other hand, a stateful approach is scalable for large database systems at the cost of nontrivial overhead due to server database management. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm, called Scalable Asynchronous Cache Consistency Scheme (SACCS), which inherits the positive features of both stateless and stateful approaches. SACCS provides a weak cache consistency for unreliable communication (e.g., wireless mobile) environments with small stale cache hit probability. It is also a highly scalable algorithm with minimum database management overhead. The properties are accomplished through the use of flag bits at the server cache (SC) and MU cache (MUC), an identifier (ID) in MUG for each entry after its invalidation, and estimated time-to-live (TTL) for each cached entry, as well as rendering of all valid entries of MUG to uncertain state when an MU wakes up. The stale cache hit probability, is analyzed and also simulated under the Rayleigh fading model of error-prone wireless channels. Comprehensive simulation results show that the performance of SACCS is superior to those of other existing stateful and stateless algorithms in both single and multicell mobile environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about articles related to ad hoc and sensor networks, which have been published within the issue. The journal includes thirteen papers regarding algorithms related to ad hoc and sensor networks. Some of the articles published in this issue are: "Geographical Cluster-Based Routing in Sensing-Covered Networks," "A Fault-Local Self-Stabilizing Clustering Service for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks," and "Energy Optimization under Informed Mobility."

Our paper [1] generated a lot of interest among researchers in ad hoc networks. A number of researchers questioned, through their articles, or directly to the first author, the correctness of the described procedure, and the correctness of the claim that the procedure does not need any communication exchange between nodes, in addition to "hello" messages needed to learn information about neighboring nodes. This correspondence completes the article by providing the actual dominating set definitions used in the procedure (from which zero communication overhead follows easily), the correct procedure (the published one has few misprints at key places), and the proof that the new definitions and procedure indeed define connected dominating sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consider a wireless multihop network where nodes are randomly distributed in a given area following a homogeneous Poisson process. The hop count statistics, viz. the probabilities related to the number of hops between two nodes, are important for performance analysis of the multihop networks. In this paper, we provide analytical results on the probability that two nodes separated by a known euclidean distance are k hops apart in networks subject to both shadowing and small-scale fading. Some interesting results are derived which have generic significance. For example, it is shown that the locations of nodes three or more hops away provide little information in determining the relationship of a node with other nodes in the network. This observation is useful for the design of distributed routing, localization, and network security algorithms. As an illustration of the application of our results, we derive the effective energy consumption per successfully transmitted packet in end-to-end packet transmissions. We show that there exists an optimum transmission range which minimizes the effective energy consumption. The results provide useful guidelines on the design of a randomly deployed network in a more realistic radio environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jamming attacks are especially harmful when ensuring the dependability of wireless communication. Finding the position of a jammer will enable the network to actively exploit a wide range of defense strategies. In this paper, we focus on developing mechanisms to localize a jammer by exploiting neighbor changes. We first conduct jamming effect analysis to examine how the communication range alters with the jammer's location and transmission power using free-space model. Then, we show that a node's affected communication range can be estimated purely by examining its neighbor changes caused by jamming attacks and thus, we can perform the jammer location estimation by solving a least-squares (LSQ) problem that exploits the changes of communication range. Compared with our previous iterative-search-based virtual force algorithm, our LSQ-based algorithm exhibits lower computational cost (i.e., one step instead of iterative searches) and higher localization accuracy. Furthermore, we analyze the localization challenges in real systems by building the log-normal shadowing model empirically and devising an adaptive LSQ-based algorithm to address those challenges. The extensive evaluation shows that the adaptive LSQ-based algorithm can effectively estimate the location of the jammer even in a highly complex propagation environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the problem of flow routing and fair bandwidth allocation under interference constraints for multihop wireless networks. We first develop a novel isotonic routing metric, RI^3M, considering the influence of interflow and intraflow interference. The isotonicity of the routing metric is proved using virtual network decomposition. Second, in order to ensure QoS, an interference-aware max-min fair bandwidth allocation algorithm, LMX:M^3F, is proposed where multiple paths (determined by using the routing metric) coexist for each user to the base station. In order to solve the algorithm, we develop an optimization formulation that is modeled as a multicommodity flow problem where the lexicographically largest bandwidth allocation vector is found among all optimal allocation vectors while considering constraints of interference on the flows. We compare our RI^3M routing metric and LMX:M^3F bandwidth allocation algorithm with various interference-based routing metrics and interference-aware bandwidth allocation algorithms established in the literature. We show that RI^3M and LMX:M^3F succeed in improving network performance in terms of delay, packet loss ratio, and bandwidth usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]