Abstract
Current peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing methods in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) can be classified into three groups: flooding-based, advertisement-based, and social contact-based. The first two groups of methods can easily have high overhead and low scalability. They are mainly developed for connected MANETs, in which end-to-end connectivity among nodes is ensured. The third group of methods adapts to the opportunistic nature of disconnected MANETs but fails to consider the social interests. SPOON groups common-interest nodes that frequently meet with each other as communities. It takes advantage of node mobility by designating stable nodes, which have the most frequent contact with community members, as community coordinators for intercommunity searching, and highly mobile nodes that visit other communities frequently as community ambassadors for intercommunity searching. An interest-oriented file searching scheme is proposed for high file searching efficiency. Additional strategies for file prefetching, querying-completion, and loop prevention, and node churn consideration are discussed to further enhance the file searching efficiency.