Qualifying explore and exploit for efficient data dissemination in emergency adhoc networks

The literature of wireless adhoc networks includes a plethora of alternative dissemination strategies that aim for efficient delivery of data traffic from source to destination. Hence, the majority of these strategies assume that the source-destination pair is known prior to any data forwarding. On the contrary, an adhoc network opportunistically formed by mobile devices in the aftermath of a disaster, lacks any actual knowledge with respect to the network topology and the response units´ availability. As such, distress nodes need to first understand their topological status in order to then be able to make informed forwarding decisions for alert message dissemination. The Explore and Exploit strategy, described hereafter, is purposefully envisioned to solve the latter issues and meet the stringent requirements for highly efficient data dissemination.