ABSTRACT
Recently, mobile social networks (MSNs) have gained tremendous attention, which free the users from face-to-monitor life, while users still can share information and stay in touch with their friends on the go. However, most MSN applications regard mobile terminals just as entry points to existing social networks, in which continual Internet and centralized servers (e.g., for storing and processing of all application/context data) connectivity are prerequisites for mobile users to exploit MSN services, even though they are within proximity area (such as campus, event spot, and community), and can directly exchange data through various wireless technologies (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct). Today, modern mobile phones have the capability to detect proximity of other users and offer means to communicate and share data ad hoc with the people in the proximity, which leads to the bloom of mobile social networking in proximity (MSNP). MSNP can be explicitly characterized as: a wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) network of spontaneously and opportunistically connected nodes utilizing both social relationships and geoproximity as the primary filter in determining who can be discoverable [1]. MSNPs are infrastructure-free and self-organized, in which there exists no centralized server (e.g., communication stations), and a pair of devices can directly send and receive messages (e.g., pictures, videos, advertisements, and software updates) when they move into each other’s communication range. Thus, message forwarding/data routing in MSNPs relies on the movement of individuals and their encounter opportunities to relay data to the destination, that is, nodes mobility is seen as a resource to bridge disconnections, rather than a problem to be dealt with.
