Graph-based Namespaces and Load Sharing for Efficient Information Dissemination in Disasters

Timely, flexible and accurate information dissemination can make a life-and-death difference in managing disasters. Complex command structures and information organization make such dissemination challenging. Thus, it is vital to have an architecture with appropriate naming frameworks, adaptable to the changing roles of participants, focused on content rather than network addresses. To address this, we propose POISE, a name-based and recipient-based publish/subscribe architecture for efficient content dissemination in disaster management. POISE proposes an information layer, improving on state-of-the-art Information-Centric Networking (ICN) solutions such as Named Data Networking (NDN) in two major ways: 1) support for complex graph-based namespaces, and 2) automatic name-based load-splitting. To capture the complexity and dynamicity of disaster response command chains and information flows, POISE proposes a graph-based naming framework, leveraged in a dissemination protocol which exploits information layer rendezvous points (RPs) that perform name expansions. For improved robustness and scalability, POISE allows load-sharing via multiple RPs each managing a subset of the namespace graph. However, excessive workload on one RP may turn it into a “hot spot”, thus impeding performance and reliability. To eliminate such traffic concentration, we propose an automatic load-splitting mechanism, consisting of a namespace graph partitioning complemented by a seamless, loss-less core migration procedure. Due to the nature of our graph partitioning and its complex objectives, off-the-shelf graph partitioning, e.g., METIS, is inadequate. We propose a hybrid partitioning solution, consisting of an initial and a refinement phase. Our simulation results show that POISE outperforms state-of-the-art solutions, demonstrating its effectiveness in timely delivery and load-sharing.