On the Impact of Device Characteristics on Opportunistic Network Performance

With smartphones gaining relevance in everyone's regular day more than ever, the application of opportunistic networks on those devices has become a popular field of research, as it enables smartphones to connect locally with high bandwidth and to provide networked applications for regional use. Conventional Delay Tolerant Networks and opportunistic network methods and techniques however cannot be directly applied on smartphones. Challenges are brought up by missing ad-hoc communication possibilities and system architecture constraints. Through tethering hotspot-based communication it is possible to create opportunistic networks for smartphones, although with specific network characteristics. We conduct a survey on the impact of device characteristics and network transmission properties on the overall network performance. Using the ONE simulator, we deploy a tethering hotspot-based connection strategy and, as the main contribution of this paper, asses the influence of single device properties onto the global opportunistic network performance. By applying a Linear Regression, we conclude a device's radio transmission range as the most significant factor one should consider when designing algorithms for smartphone-based opportunistic networks.