Polycast: A new paradigm for information-centric data delivery in heterogeneous mobile fog networks

Within the emerging fog network, mobile devices along with local sensors and actuators dynamically form an ad hoc network. As mobile ad hoc networks frequently merge and split in such mobile fog network scenarios, the node addresses must be changed too. This implies that a session may be broken if one of the peers is assigned a new IP address. To overcome this problem, this article proposes a novel structured late-binding address that makes use of node contexts to determine the logical destination group carried in the packet header. The idea is to hide internal mobile ad hoc network details (e.g. addresses) from external sources. The mobile ad hoc network advertises only its own ID and the list of internal contexts. When an external sender transmits a packet to a remote mobile ad hoc network, it must choose first the combination of contexts (i.e. qualifications) that an internal node must present to get the packet. This gives rise to a new data delivery paradigm called polycast. Namely, the physical identities of the destination(s) are determined only when the packet reaches the target mobile ad hoc network. Consequently, the number of destinations can vary from zero (no match) to unicast and multicast depending on the set of contexts. Say, the destinations and routing mode (e.g. unicast, multicast, or broadcast) are determined by the contexts. Simulation models are used to evaluate the scheme and to determine sensitivity to network variables.