Collaborative Decentralized Resource Reservation for Emergency Communication Networks

Direct ad hoc connections among mobile devices can be utilized for emergency communication in times when communication infrastructure is unavailable due to blackouts or natural disasters. However, the quality of the resulting mobile ad hoc network strongly depends on the number of devices involved. Thus, to sustain a fully functional emergency communication network, devices need to recharge using external resources (e.g., battery packs, solar panels). Access to these resources needs to be coordinated such that the overall network lifetime is increased. We propose an auction-based resource reservation protocol for a decentralized resource allocation service. Through an extensive simulation study we show that our approach (i) efficiently coordinates the competition for resources, leading to a network lifetime comparable to a global allocation approach (98.8%) and (ii) delays the time until the first node runs out of energy by a factor of 1.4 compared to related work. This increases the value of the emergency communication network significantly, aiding more people over extended periods of time.