Mobility as an Alternative Communication Channel: A Survey

TL;DR

This survey explores how mobile entities acting as data carriers can serve as alternative communication channels to address network limitations, offering new solutions for connectivity and capacity challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of systems using mobile data carriers, highlighting their potential to overcome traditional network constraints and improve connectivity.

Findings

Mobile entities can effectively carry data to extend network coverage.

Mobile data carriers help offload traffic from traditional networks.

They enable communication in environments where conventional infrastructure is limited.

Abstract

We review the research literature investigating systems in which mobile entities can carry data while they move. These entities can be either mobile by nature (e.g., human beings and animals) or mobile by design (e.g., trains, airplanes, and cars). The movements of such entities equipped with storage capabilities create a communication channel which can help overcome the limitations or the lack of conventional data networks. Common limitations include the mismatch between the capacity offered by these networks and the traffic demand or their limited deployment owing to environmental factors. Application scenarios include offloading traffic off legacy networks for capacity improvement, bridging connectivity gaps, or deploying ad hoc networks in challenging environments for coverage enhancement.