Opportunistic wireless communication in theme parks: a study of visitors mobility

Ad hoc networks of wireless devices carried by theme park visitors can be used to support variety of services. In such networks, links between the devices sporadically appear and disappear with the mobility of visitors. The network performance strongly depends on how often they encounter each other and for how long the contact opportunities last. In this paper, we study the mobility of visitors based on GPS traces collected in an entertainment theme park. We demonstrate and discuss the implications of the observed mobility on the efficiency of opportunistic message forwarding. On an example, we show how arrivals, departures, and spatial distribution of the park visitors affect the delay of a broadcast application.

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