Clustering between Data Mules for Better Message Delivery.

Traditionally data cannot be delivered between isolated networks. However by using a data mule which is a combination between an electronic device and a mobile entity we can connect isolated networks. However, the main problem is that a long delay is experience and most of the time a large amount of undeliverable. In this paper we propose an algorithm that increases message delivery by clustering data mules in order to find a more reliable path between the sender and the receiver. Instead of data remaining on the same mule when travelling from one network to another, our algorithm allows mules to transfer data to nearby mules arriving to the destination network sooner. Using movement traces for the data mules for rural-like areas we compared two algorithms for a different number of nodes in the network and different communication ranges for each node. The preliminary results show that our proposed algorithm increases the network performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]