Effective replica allocation in ad hoc networks for improving data accessibility

Abstract

The advances in computer and wireless communication technologies have led to an increasing interest in ad hoc networks which are temporarily constructed by only mobile hosts. In ad hoc networks, since mobile hosts move freely, disconnections occur frequently, and this causes frequent network division. Consequently, data accessibility in ad hoc networks is lower than that in the conventional fixed networks. We propose three replica allocation methods to improve data accessibility by replicating data items on mobile hosts. In these three methods, we take into account the access frequency from mobile hosts to each data item and the status of the network connection. We also show the results of simulation experiments regarding the performance evaluation of our proposed methods.