ADRIN: An Adaptive and Distributed Routing Mechanism for Challenged IoT Networks

Data and communication networks in disaster-hit areas are often crippled due to partial or complete outages of the networking infrastructures. In such challenging post-disaster scenarios, message sharing is indispensable for a timely recovery. Typically, it is done by building mobile ad-hoc networks by devices in possession of users. However, challenged networks are often constrained by intermittent connectivity, delay, and energy constraints, necessitating routing strategies that offer seamless communication in the face of node failure and mobility. In this paper, we present an adaptive and distributed routing mechanism termed ADRIN. It employs backtracking-based mobility tracing, inspired by the backward algorithm of Hidden Markov Models, to infer periodicity in mobility to determine stable routes and then constructs a spatiotemporal ad-hoc network to relay data in a multi-hop fashion to the base station. Preliminary experiments show that ADRIN approximates the underlying mobility distribution and performs data forwarding despite failures.