On Integrating Space Syntax Metrics with Social-aware Opportunistic Forwarding

Although high speed internet access is widespread in many countries, it is still undeniably scarce elsewhere. Opportunistic networking solutions have provided alternative connectivity models in such scenarios. One of the main opportunistic networking approaches involves leveraging social and Space Syntax information in order to minimize message forwarding costs, along with delay. Space Syntax is a domain of architecture engineering that relates spatial configuration to user mobility and thus, can provide insights into when to forward messages. In this work, we question the accuracy of existing Space syntax metrics in defining attraction points in a given urban area, and statistically demonstrate their inefficiency and lack of power awareness. We propose variations of Space Syntax metrics, and introduce a framework for integrating Space Syntax with social-based forwarding algorithms. We evaluate our framework via simulations using real traces that we collected from a university campus. Our results show an improvement in performance resulting from this integration, in terms of f-measure and utilization fairness, as well as significant reduction in the ratio of contacted uninterested nodes, cost, power consumption, and delay.