Mobile Testbeds with an Attitude

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel mobile testbed comprising robot networks with human-like behaviors and a participatory testing approach that leverages crowd sourcing to evaluate mobile networks realistically.

Contribution

It presents a new mobile testbed with robots mimicking human behaviors and a participatory testing framework integrating crowd sourcing for realistic network evaluation.

Findings

Robots exhibit human-like encounter behaviors based on behavioral profiling.

Participatory testing effectively involves human society in network evaluation.

The testbed enables realistic assessment of mobile network protocols.

Abstract

There have been significant recent advances in mobile networks, specifically in multi-hop wireless networks including DTNs and sensor networks. It is critical to have a testing environment to realistically evaluate such networks and their protocols and services. Towards this goal, we propose a novel, mobile testbed of two main components. The first consists of a network of robots with personality- mimicking, human-encounter behaviors, which will be the focus of this demo. The personality is build upon behavioral profiling of mobile users based on extensive wireless-network measurements and analysis. The second component combines the testbed with the human society using a new concept that we refer to as participatory testing utilizing crowd sourcing.