ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a congestion-aware adaptive routing protocol (CAARP), which can perform better in opportunistic networking environments. This proposed protocol exhibits better performance than well-known protocols in the field, especially when the buffer sizes are larger. Opportunistic networks have emerged as a new paradigm in communication networking during the past few years and are considered a subclass of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and delay-tolerant networking. Ad hoc and MANETs are two such networking architectures where portable devices are able to establish pair-wise network connectivity among peer devices using short-range wireless connectivity. Opportunistic networks are assumed to operate without the support of typical networking infrastructure, they are also suitable for being employed in developing regions of the world where network infrastructure is not available or is very much of limited range for political and economic reasons. The potential and unique characteristics of opportunistic networks have attracted researchers in finding ways of distributing content of interest using opportunistic contacts.
