FCNS: A Fuzzy Routing-Forwarding Algorithm Exploiting Comprehensive Node Similarity in Opportunistic Social Networks

• Main Authors: Kanghuai Liu, Zhigang Chen, Jia Wu, Leilei Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-08-01
• Series: Symmetry
• Subjects: opportunistic social networks; routing algorithm; node similarity; fuzzy inference system; data transmission
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/10/8/338

At the dawn of big data and 5G networks, end-to-end communication with large amounts of data between mobile devices is difficult to be implemented through the traditional face-to-face transmission mechanism in social networks. Consequently, opportunistic social networks proposed that message applications should choose proper relay nodes to perform effective data transmission processes. At present, several routing algorithms, based on node similarity, attempt to use the contextual information related to nodes and the special relationships between them to select a suitable relay node among neighbors. However, when evaluating the similarity degree between a pair of nodes, most existing algorithms in opportunistic social networks pay attention to only a few similar factors, and even ignore the importance of mobile similarity in the data transmission process. To improve the transmission environment, this study establishes a fuzzy routing-forwarding algorithm (FCNS) exploiting comprehensive node similarity (the mobile and social similarities) in opportunistic social networks. In our proposed scheme, the transmission preference of the node is determined through the fuzzy evaluation of mobile and social similarities. The suitable message delivery decision is made by collecting and comparing the transmission preference of nodes, and the sustainable and stable data transmission process is performed through the feedback mechanism. Through simulations and the comparison of social network algorithms, the delivery ratio in the proposed algorithm is 0.85 on average, and the routing delay and network overhead of this algorithm are always the lowest.