Measuring Temporal Lags in Delay-Tolerant Networks
Résumé
Delay-tolerant networks (DTNs) are characterized by a possible absence of end-to-end communication routes at any instant. In most cases, however, a form of connectivity can be established over time and space. This particularity leads to consider the relevance of a given route not only in terms of hops (topological length), but also in terms of time (temporal length). The problem of measuring temporal distances between individuals in a social network was recently addressed, based on a posteriori analysis of interaction traces. This paper focuses on the distributed version of this problem, asking whether every node in a network can know precisely and in real time how out-of-date it is with respect to every other. Answering affirmatively is simple when contacts between the nodes are punctual, using the temporal adaptation of vector clocks provided in [23]. It becomes more difficult when contacts have a duration and can overlap in time with each other. We demonstrate that the problem remains solvable with arbitrarily long contacts and non-instantaneous (though invariant and known) propagation delays on edges. This is done constructively by extending the temporal adaptation of vector clocks to non-punctual causality. The second part of the paper discusses how the knowledge of temporal lags could be used as a building block to solve more concrete problems, such as the construction of foremost broadcast trees or network backbones in periodically-varying DTNs.
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...