The formation of a collaborative network by mobile agents in the ubiquitous environment

Abstract

Despite the rapid emergence of network protocols and technologies over the years, infrastructure-based communication networks remain volatile, especially in areas with limited network infrastructure or during crises such as natural disasters, civil unrest, or war. Therefore, an alternative and temporary form of communication is needed. The literature has shown that mobile devices are equipped with excellent communication technologies but are underutilized. This leads to the idea of developing a temporary data exchange model by leveraging the mobile device's Wi-Fi interface. Initially, a preliminary analysis was conducted to investigate the operation of the Wi-Fi P2P protocol and related literature. This analysis included a scoping review to identify the analytical methods and experimental results documented by researchers. Furthermore, the technical documentation of the protocols was studied to gain a detailed understanding of the underlying operations. Next, a new data exchange model was realized by exploiting the Wi-Fi P2P service discovery protocol within the Wi-Fi P2P framework. A prototype for testing was developed using the Android Studio IDE. Finally, multiple test cases were conducted on a real-time experimental testbed. The prototype was installed on all smartphones for testing with different message payloads (60, 120, 180, and 240 bytes). Each set of test cases was executed at least 100 times to collect data for analysis. The Logcat tool in Android Studio was used for data collection. Analyzing the collected data revealed that the model can support a maximum payload of 240 bytes per message. When considering various payloads as test cases, the recorded average latency and effective goodput were 2.4 seconds and 1.6 kbps, respectively. The main contribution of this research is a communication model that other researchers can adopt or extend to leverage wireless interfaces with similar characteristics. Furthermore, the systematic procedures used in the experimental testbed can serve as a guide for performance measurement in similar domains. In the event of communication failure, the proposed model will serve as an alternative for temporary or emergency communication. Hence, the outcomes of this research will benefit the rapidly growing mobile user market and ultimately expand the coverage of alternative communication networks.