Information transfer device, delay tolerant network, information transmission method, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9853887-B2
Application number	US-201414774340-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2014
Priority date	Mar 13, 2013
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A delay tolerant network is built with the use of a plurality of information transfer devices each of which includes: a communication unit to communicate to and from another device within a communication range that is connected to the information transfer device; and a storing unit to store and keeps collected notification information, and each of which holds delay tolerant communication by exchanging the collected and kept notification information with another device when the exchange becomes possible. Each information transfer device includes a control unit to exchange environment information with another information transfer device, and to execute deriving processing an assigned range that is assigned autonomously to its own information transfer device, based on the environment information that is kept by its own information transfer device, through a planarization search processing in which a value is evened out between its own information transfer device and other information transfer devices.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An information transfer device, comprising:
a communication unit to communicate to and from another device within a communication range that is connected to the information transfer device;
a storing unit to store and keep notification information that is received via the communication unit to be relayed;
a delay tolerant communication unit to exchange the notification information stored in the storing unit with another device when the exchange becomes possible; and
a control unit to exchange environment information with another information transfer device, and to derive an assigned range that is assigned autonomously to the information transfer device, based on the environment information that is kept by the information transfer device, through a planarization search processing in which a value is evened out between the information transfer device and other information transfer devices, the value being a value of equal load balancing another one of the information transfer devices, the assigned range being one of ranges that are shared between the information transfer device and the other information transfer devices as assigned ranges.

2. The information transfer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit derives the assigned range by determining the assigned range that is assigned to the information transfer device, using as a parameter a cost necessary to connect arbitrary devices in the assigned range of the information transfer device by delay tolerant communication, through the planarization search in which the cost is evened out between the information transfer device and the other information transfer devices through use of an evaluation function set to the information transfer device and evaluation functions set to the other information transfer devices.

3. The information transfer device according to claim 2 , wherein, as the parameter indicating the cost, a total travel distance or a total travel time is used.

4. The information transfer device according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit manages and keeps only the evaluation function of the information transfer device, and adjusts the assigned range with respect to each other, calculates from the managed and kept evaluation function a value to be compared which is used in the planarization search processing, notifies the value to another information transfer device, receives from the other information transfer device a value calculated from the evaluation function that is managed by the other information transfer device, and determines the assigned range of the information transfer device so that the values are evened out.

5. The information transfer device according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit receives the evaluation function from an adjacent information transfer device, and adjusts the assigned range with respect to each other, determines the assigned range of the information transfer device so that a value calculated through use of the evaluation function of the information transfer device and a value calculated through use of the received evaluation function are evened out.

6. The information transfer device according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit adjusts the assigned range in a manner that equalizes values derived from the evaluation functions of each other, and cooperates with another information transfer device so that each information transfer device obtains a value derived from the evaluation function of the respective information transfer device.

7. The information transfer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit executes processing of formulating, as a travel strategy, a route that accumulates the notification information in a given device which is within the assigned range of the information transfer device after obtaining and keeping through an information exchange for notification information that is collected in the assigned range of the other information transfer device.

8. The information transfer device according to claim 7 , wherein the control unit identifies a location of an arbitrary device by receiving environment information about the assigned range of the other information transfer device, and executes an adding process in which the arbitrary device is added to the assigned range of the information transfer device, when a travel distance or travel time based on a positional relation between the information transfer device and the arbitrary device is smaller than a travel distance or travel time which is assigned the arbitrary device at the other information transfer device.

9. The information transfer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit executes processing of formulating, as a travel strategy, a route that is used to travel at given intervals to a communication range of a given device where another information transfer device accumulates notification information and environment information, and obtains the notification information collected by the other information transfer device.

10. The information transfer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit derives the assigned range of the information transfer device, based on the environment information that is kept by the information transfer device and based on a result of equalizing costs of each other through use of an evaluation function built from a convex function.

11. The information transfer device according to claim 10 , wherein the control unit comprises an algorithm for equalizing differential values of the convex function of each other, and uses the algorithm to execute the equalizing of the costs.

12. The information transfer device according to claim 11 , wherein the control unit operates with a performance difference between the information transfer device and the other information transfer devices reflected on a set value as a difference between maximum values of each convex function.

13. A delay tolerant network, comprising:
a plurality of information transfer devices each of which executes delay tolerant communication by using a communication unit to communicate to and from another device within a communication range that is connected to the information transfer device and a storing unit to store and keep collected notification information to exchange the collected and kept notification information with another device when the exchange becomes possible, each of the plurality of information transfer devices comprising
a control unit to exchange environment information with another information transfer device, and to derive an assigned range that is assigned autonomously to the respective information transfer device, based on the environment information that is kept by the respective information transfer device, through a planarization search processing in which a value is evened out between the respective information transfer device and other information transfer devices, the value being a value of equal load balancing another one of the information transfer devices, the assigned range being one of ranges that are shared between the respective information transfer device and the other information transfer devices as assigned ranges,

wherein each of the plurality of information transfer devices collects and deploys notification information while operating in an autonomous decentralized manner.

14. The delay tolerant network according to claim 13 , further comprising a central node to collect environment information in a concentrated manner from the plurality of information transfer devices for executing delay tolerant communication, and to execute, through use of the concentrated environment in

Assignees

• Nec Corp
• Univ Tohoku

Inventors

• Ogawa Masatsugu
• WAKAYAMA Hisaya
• Matsuda Yuma
• Kamimura Junpei
• Yano Masafumi

Classifications

• H04L45/26 Primary

  Route discovery packet · CPC title

• H04W40/246

  Connectivity information discovery · CPC title

• H04W40/248

  Connectivity information update · CPC title

• H04W84/18 Primary

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title