Masters Degrees (Mathematical Sciences)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Mathematical Sciences) by Subject "Ad hoc networks (Computer networks)"

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    Investigating credit based mechanisms for enhancing performance in wireless ad hoc networks
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-12) Goldberg, Ariel Shei; Krzesinski, Anthony E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Science. Dept. of Mathematical Sciences.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores two key aspects of wireless ad hoc networks. The first aspect concerns the topic of stimulating cooperation between nodes in a wireless ad hoc network. The functionality of a wireless ad hoc network depends entirely on the willingness of nodes to relay messages on behalf of other nodes. Network functionality depends on ensuring cooperation between nodes, so that each node benefits from continued participation in the network. This suggests an important question: how can cooperation among individual nodes be managed to improve overall wireless ad hoc network performance? The second aspect explored in this thesis concerns the concept of optimal resource utilisation. Wireless ad hoc networks are characterised by limited bandwidth and energy resources, which facilitates deployment in situations in which traditional infrastructure based networks are not practical. This suggests another important question: how can the use of the limited energy and bandwidth resources of wireless ad hoc networks be optimised? This research relies on the concept of a credit-based market economy. Nodes in simulated ad hoc networks use credits to pay for the cost of sending their own traffic and earn credits by forwarding traffic on behalf of other nodes. We show that a credit-based market economy approach can be employed to stimulate and regulate cooperation between nodes in a wireless ad hoc network. We show that this approach can be implemented in a simple decentralised manner and that it has several variants depending on which node is considered to be paying for the service, what the price of each service should be and how we route packets around the network using information derived from the credit-based economy. This thesis demonstrates that several variants of a credit-based scheme can be implemented in a packet based simulator and that these variants result in the stable operation of the network and improve the overall performance. The credit-based mechanisms also show significant improvement to network performance in resource constrained conditions and represent an effective means for optimising limited energy and bandwidth resource. The effectiveness of the credit-based mechanisms increases as the load on the networks increases.