Field experiment on the performance of an android-based opportunistic network

Abstract

Android smartphones ubiquitously available, they are mobile and have sophisticated communication opportunities. With Opportunistic Networks, we can use the wireless connectivity of smartphones and other smart devices to relay messages in store-carry-forward fashion from one node to another to implement novel data-oriented applications. We can use these networks for high-bandwidth local data transfers, in cases with low or no connectivity, such as in third-world countries or remote areas, or in cases where communication should not leave any traces. In the last years, we developed an Android application for Opportunistic Networking, named opptain, that can be deployed on off-the-shelf unrooted smartphones and smart devices, enabling to harness this idea by simply installing an app. As the quality of such networks is essential, we implemented a test framework for Android-based opportunistic networks to run tests and aggregate results automatically. In this paper, we present the evaluation results of a field experiment we conducted with the opptain application, in which we used 26 devices to evaluate the outcome typical use cases. The tests show that the expected quality is reached and provides robust performance for various applications. In total, opptain, the testing environment, as well as the results themselves, are promising; for an office scenario in which interference is more common than in other possible scenarios, we achieved encouraging results.