HYRAX

Summary

HYRAX is a middleware that establishes communication links between nearby mobile devices to form edge-clouds and cloudlets networks. HYRAX provides mechanisms for network formation and routing, that are automated, churn-tolerant and employs different wireless communication technologies simultaneously, forming an overlay network for data dissemination.

In real case experiments, HYRAX was able to offload congestion from infrastructural Wi-Fi and 4G by 80% (connected users) and by 60% for video downloading, achieving a three-fold speed up of video downloads.

Challenge

Currently, data dissemination relies on infrastructural communications (Wi-Fi and 3G/4G). This architecture can be a drawback in crowded venues, leading to traffic congestion (slow network access) or in an emergency or disaster scenario, in which the infrastructural communication might be impaired or even non-existent, leading to hard or impossible communication.

In order to suppress those limitations, INESC TEC’s researchers have developed HYRAX middleware, which allows users to find other users in the surrounding area, and to establish peer-to-peer communication for the exchange of text messages or other media such as audio, video and geo-tags.

Main Advantages

• Supports different wireless technologies simultaneously: Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and 3G/4G;
• Performs wireless ad-hoc network: communication without the assistance of pre-installed infrastructure;
• Establishes abstract communication – a specific message is routed in the mesh, using diverse wireless communication technologies simultaneously;
• Establishes peer-to-peer communication with nearby mobile devices, enabling the exchange of text messages or other media like audio and video between them without access to the internet;
• Comprises a set of core services: messaging, naming, storage and computation;
• Churn-tolerant.

Applications

• Video dissemination in large venues;
• Searching for missing persons;
• Rescue or assistance in emergency scenarios;
• Chat applications without internet access.