Roomba MADNeT

Abstract

We have built a mobile, ad-hoc, delay tolerant, network testbed (MADNeT). Our testbed is geared towards enabling the exploration of highly disconnected networks whose nodes must store and forward information (multi-hop paths are very unlikely), while allowing us to explore connected network scenarios as well. Using our MADNeT, we can emulate a wide range of mobile networking scenarios and execute real-world (albeit somewhat simplified) data collection missions. Our system is built from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware running a paired-down Linux OS, yielding a relatively inexpensive but fairly flexible mobile network testbed. We have implemented replication-based information diffusion protocols and a distributed opportunistic surveillance application on the testbed as proof-of-concept. Currently, we are refining our software tool-set and instrumenting our nodes to test both our protocols and application.