Matching information requests with node profiles in opportunistic mobile networks

In a mobile ad hoc environment, the available wireless tech-nologies can be effectively exploited in the development of platforms for peer-to-peer exchanges among all nodes. Con-sidering such an environment, we have defined a multilevel platform for empowering a set of mobile terminals to se-curely communicate, in peer-to-peer mode, using the most appropriate technology according to the context. More con-cretely, we target an application scenario involving informa-tion sharing among the different mobile entities of a system. This scenario has led us to identify the main operations to perform within the multilevel platform and, more particu-larly, to consider the specification of a set of targets. This operation is meant to allow the definition of a set of nodes to target so that an entity can look for the information it may need. Then, the objective is to propose an effcient solution for the specification of targets so that it can be performed in the most realistic way in the considered environment. In this paper, we first present the multilevel platform and the approach that we have devised for its design. We then fo-cus on the specification of a set of targets to describe how it is performed within the multilevel platform. Finally, we detail some elements that highlight the realistic aspect of our approach from an analytical perspective and through the results of tests that we have conducted.