Opportunistic web access via WLAN hotspots

Abstract

Mobile phones are becoming commonplace for consuming Internet content and services. However, availability, affordability, and quality of the supposedly ubiquitous cellular network infrastructure may be limited, so that delay-tolerant web access via WLAN hotspots becomes an interesting alternative, even in urban areas. In this paper we explore mobile web access using asynchronous messaging via WLAN hotspots: for nodes directly connected to an access point and nodes relying on others for message forwarding. We investigate different routing and caching approaches using real-world access point locations in Helsinki. We find that a significant number of requests can be satisfied without requiring an always-on infrastructure, provided that users are willing to tolerate some response delay; this allows offloading traffic from the cellular network. We also report on our prototype implementation of mobile DTN-based web browsing.