Seven degrees of separation in mobile ad hoc networks

We present an architecture that enables the sharing of information among mobile, wireless, collaborating hosts that are intermittently connected to the Internet. Participants in the system obtain data objects from Internet-connected servers, cache them and exchange them with others who are interested in them. The system exploits the fact that there is a high locality of information access within a geographic area. It aims to increase the data availability to participants with lost connectivity to the Internet. We investigate how user mobility and query patterns affect data dissemination in such an environment. We discuss the main components of the system and possible applications. Finally, we present simulation results that show that the ad hoc networks can be very effective in distributing popular information