Random walk-based approaches are suitable for information dissemination in mobile and opportunistic environments that are inherently dynamic and typically large-scale. Multiple random walkers have been proposed in the recent past as a suitable mechanism to significantly reduce termination time when covering a network topology. In this paper, the multiple random walkers mechanism is studied and analyzed under a different and novel perspective that allows for further understanding of network coverage when employing multiple random walkers in a network. Given that under this mechanism the number of movements is significantly increased (proportional to the number of random walkers) -and sometimes not as effective as expected due to frequent revisits that do not improve coverage as shown in this paper -a replication mechanism is introduced that is capable of reducing the number of movements by reducing initial revisits. Simulation results considering geometric random graph topologies -which are suitable for modeling mobile environments -are also presented supporting the analytical findings and shedding more light on various aspects of both the aforementioned mechanisms.
Oikonomou et al. in REF investigate the use of multiple random walkers and related replication mechanisms.
A study of information dissemination under multiple random walkers and replication mechanisms
MobiOpp '10
Mathematics Computer Science