Middleware Solutions for Self-organizing Multi-hop Multi-path Internet Connectivity Based on Bluetooth

Abstract

Abstract. The availability of heterogeneous wireless interfaces and of growing computing resources on widespread portable devices pushes for enabling innovative deployment scenarios where mobile nodes dynamically self-organize to offer Internet connectivity to their peers via dynamically established multi-hop multi-path opportunities. We claim the suitability of novel, mobility-aware, and application-layer middleware based on lightweight evaluation indicators to support the complexity of that scenario, involving heterogeneous wireless technologies over differentiated and statically unpredictable execution environments. To validate these claims, we have implemented an innovative middleware that manages the durability/throughput-aware formation and selection of different multi-hop paths simultaneously. This paper specifically focuses on how our middleware effectively exploits Bluetooth for multi-hop multi-path networking, by pointing out the crucial role of i) compliance with standard solutions to favor rapid deployment over off-the-shelf equipment and ii) the reduction of the usual overhead associated with some expensive Bluetooth operations, e.g., device inquiry. In particular, the paper shows how it is possible, on the one hand, to extend JSR-82 to portably access monitoring indicators for lightweight mobility/throughput estimations and, on the other hand, to reduce the time needed to update the set of available Bluetooth-based connectivity opportunities via approximated and lightweight forms of discovery.

Preliminary Analysis of Wireless Collaborative Network on Mobile Devices

“…The end user's mobile device should have an intelligent mechanism to determine the best available surrounding resources in real time. Bellavista and Giannelli (2009) introduced the idea of implementing middleware in mobile devices to provide multi-hop multi-path Internet connectivity. They achieved the connectivity by exploiting the JSR-82 Bluetooth API and integrating the API into a proposed architecture known as MMHC.…”

“…The information shared among mobile devices could be the location of the nearest free Wi-Fi access point or information of diverted wireless network connections via the social collaboration of mobile devices. Researchers have been exploiting the functionality of targeted mobile devices to serve as tools of WCN due to the rising trend of using mobile devices such as the smartphone, tablet or phablet (Bellavista, 2014;Bellavista & Giannelli, 2009;Gardner-Stephen & Palaniswamy, 2011;Han et al, 2014). To establish a WCN, a mobile device should be able to connect at least two other devices together.…”