Evaluating the impact of network loads and message size on mobile opportunistic networks in challenged environments

The use of mobile opportunistic networks may help users to gain access to an available network connection for communication in challenged environments. For instance, areas that lack an available infrastructure for communication (e.g., rural or sparse areas) or areas with an infrastructure where the network connection is not as accessible (e.g., restricted/full of interference access networks or a high cost roaming zone). In this paper, we observe how the overall network performs with the changes of network load (e.g., number of messages) along with the long-sized messages in such environments. With real-world trace-driven simulations, we compare and contrast the impact of the message generation rates and the message size in different opportunistic routing protocols in a challenged environment to see this performance impact. Our experimental results show that in such environments, mobile opportunistic networks improve the overall message delivery performance using user's interactions and social collaborations even with higher message generation rates and increased message sizes.