NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Mobile Content Distribution in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

移动内容分发(MCD)是车载自组网(VANET)中一个重要的新兴应用。其高而稳定的数据速率要求给带宽严重受限和高移动性的VANET带来了巨大的压力。符号级网络编码(SLNC)为无线传输提供了更好的容错性和更高的空间重用性。因此，对于非常需要带宽的MCD网络来说，这是一种很有前途的方法。本项目主要研究在VANET中开发用于MCD的SLNC的两个主要基本问题。首先，对移动无线网络中SLNC所能达到的网络容量和性能界限进行了理论研究。提出了一个新的模型来描述流水线网络环境下的SLNC操作。确定了影响可实现吞吐量的关键因素。研究了在一定的移动性模式下推导移动接收器的累积吞吐量的方法。第二个研究重点是使用SLNC为MCD网络设计分布式和本地化的算法和协议。为了最大化MCD网络的吞吐量，提出了一套新的基于SLNC的MCD网络协议。

Mobile content distribution (MCD) is an important emerging application in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Its high and stable data rate requirement puts significant stress on the severely bandwidth-limited and highly mobile VANETs. Symbol level network coding (SLNC) provides better error-resilience and in turn higher spatial reusability for wireless transmission. It thus is a promising approach for the very bandwidth-hungry MCD networks. This project focuses on two main fundamental problems related to exploiting SLNC for MCD in VANETs. First, a theoretic study on the network capacity and performance bounds achievable by SLNC in mobile wireless networks is carried out. A new model is proposed to characterize the SLNC operation in a flow network setting. Key factors that impact the achievable throughput are identified. Methods to derive accumulated throughput for a mobile receiver following certain mobility pattern are investigated. The second research focus is on the design of distributed and localized algorithms and protocols for MCD networks using SLNC. A suite of new network protocols for SLNC-based MCD network are proposed in order to maximize the throughput of the MCD network.