Predict and Forward: An Efficient Routing-Delivery Scheme Based on Node Profile in Opportunistic Networks

In the social scene of opportunistic networks, message applications find suitable relay nodes or certain transmission destinations from the surrounding neighbors through specific network addresses of users. However, at the dawn of big data and 5G networks, the variational location information of nodes is difficult to be available to mobile devices all the time, and a long wait for the destination may cause severe end-to-end delay. To improve the transmission environment, this study constructs an efficient routing-delivery scheme (Predict and Forward) based on node profile for the opportunistic networks. The node profile effectively characterizes nodes by analyzing and comparing their attributes instead of network addresses, such as physical characteristics, places of residence, workplaces, occupations or hobbies. According to the optimal stopping theory, this algorithm implements the optimal transmission for Prelearn messages by dividing the complex data transmission process into two different phases (Predict and Forward). Through simulations and the comparison of routing algorithms in opportunistic networks, the proposed strategy increases the delivery ratio by 80% with the traditional methods on average, and the average end-to-end delay in this algorithm is the lowest.