MADN - Multipath Ad-hoc data network prototype and experiments

This paper presents the first prototype of Multipath Ad-hoc Data Network (MADN) a clean slate protocol for ad-hoc wireless content distribution. Inspired by the recent advances on Information Centric Networking (ICN), MADN is namely a pull-based protocol that emphasizes on seamless route redundancy and multi-path data delivery. It is complementary to the former IP protocol and therefore does not implement primitives for machine-to-machine communication. In consideration of targeting specifically the wireless medium, it uses rateless encoded data packets to counterbalance packet loss and to benefit from multi-source data distribution. A major difference between MADN and previous works is the use of the BlooGo algorithm in place of the conventional routing protocols - e.g. random walks, landmarks or coordinate spaces. The main advantages of using BlooGo is that it delivers the packets in considerably less hops while it maintains alternative routes open as backup of the shortest ones. This paper serves two aims, firstly it proposes a new protocol for multipath content distribution in ad-hoc environments, secondly it presents its architecture and how this interfaces with the final applications. Ultimately, the implementation is intentionally kept modular in order to facilitate deploying and evaluation of new solutions and new configurations - e.g. different caching algorithms or different types of Erasure Codes - without major refactoring of the codebase. © 2013 IEEE.