Low-Cost Identifiers for Ubiquitous Computing

Any device we want to connect to a global network, e.g. Internet, should have a unique global identifier. However, the size of this identifier can be an unacceptable overhead for devices with limited resources (sensors, toys, disposable devices, micro-robots, etc.), because conventional protocols use full addresses to transmit, process, and store the data required for routing. The usual solution for such devices is to limit the address space to 1 or 2 bytes, but this sacrifices the global unicity of the identifiers. The proposal presented in this article enables devices with limited resources to use reduced addresses that globally identify hosts. We propose the use of abbreviated addresses for routing. We have developed a new protocol named ADSR that takes advantage of these new addresses. This protocol is a modified version of DSR based on the use of abbreviated addresses. The abbreviation procedure can lead to two different nodes having the same address, which we will term collision. ADSR allows rather than avoids collisions. The foundations of this protocol, and some results of an implementation are also presented in this article.