Various Issues in Ad-hoc Social Networks (ASN)

Social networking has been provided as an online service that focuses on building relations among people. Social networking services are web based and use a centralized infrastructure e.g. Internet connection and a website (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, or twitter) for providing communication among users interested in making social network. Each user has to maintain a profile on a webpage of the website and uses this page to connect with other members. Users can share audio, video, messages, and other interests within their individual networks. A person uses social networking service to connect old friends, make new friends, or people with similar interests. Along with other advantages, online social networking has several limitations with regard to needed infrastructure. Online social networking is dependent on a centralized infrastructure. If the website is blocked due to some reasons, social network will not be available. Another reason could be the Internet. Users access social networking service only if they have an Internet connection working on their devices. However, the Internet connection may not be completely available (as you are not connected to wireless router) or may be partially available (as you are connected but blocked to access these sites). Another limitation of present social network is suggesting friends based on their profile and not based on their dynamic interests. These social networks do not suggest friends based on present interest, context, and proximity. The interests of users may be attending a conference or sharing taxi. ASN help users to connect with other nearby users interested in similar objective. So, there is a need for network-on-the-move that can also provide social network facilities anytime anywhere based on the dynamic interests of the users without using any infrastructure. Ad-hoc Social Network (ASN) [1] has been proposed to form social network that is not dependent on any other centralized infrastructure or Internet. ASN is combination of Ad-hoc network and social network. ASN can connect users which are in proximate location to each other and have common interests. ASN uses routing protocols of ad-hoc network in order to facilitate communication among interested users. Out of many nodes that form an ad-hoc network, some of the nodes may have social network among them as shown in Figure 1.