Exploring Multi-Path Communication in Hybrid Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Ambient computing requires the integration of multiple mobile heterogeneous networks. Multi-path communication in such scenarios can provide reliability and privacy benefits. Even though the properties of multi-path routing have been extensively studied and a number of algorithms proposed, implementation of such techniques can be tricky, particularly when resource-constrained nodes are connected to each other through hybrid networks with different characteristics. In this paper, the authors discuss the challenges involved in implementing multipath communication on a middleware for hybrid mobile ad hoc networks. The authors present the PLASTIC middleware, several compelling applications of multi-path communication and the main issues concerning their implementation as a primitive middleware-provided communication.