Token Traversal Strategies of a Distributed Spanning Forest Algorithm in Mobile Ad hoc - Delay Tolerant Networks

This paper presents three distributed and decentralized strategies used for token traversal in spanning forest over Mobile Ad Hoc Delay Tolerant Networks. Such networks are characterized by behaviors like disappearance of mobile devices, connection disruptions, network partitioning, etc. Techniques based on tree topologies are well known for increasing the efficiency of network protocols and/or applications, such as Dynamicity Aware - Graph Relabeling System (DA-GRS). One of the main features of these tree based topologies is the existence of a token traversing in every tree. The use of tokens enables the creation and maintenance of spanning trees in dynamic environments. Subsequently, managing tree-based backbones relies heavily on the token behavior. An efficient and optimal token traversal can highly impact the design of the tree and its usage. In this article, we present a comparison of three distributed and decentralized techniques available for token management, which are Randomness, TABU and Depth First Search.