International Workshop on Survivability Strategies for Emerging Wireless Networks

Recent developments in mobile and wireless networks have paved the way for them to become fabric of society and economy. The ever-increasing penetration rate of mobile telephony and wireless broadband data access, and the ubiquity of WiFi are just a few examples of the phenomenon. While multi-hop wireless networks (e.g., LTE/LTE-A, WiMax and mesh networks) offer many advantages such as enhanced capacity, extended communication range, deployment and operational flexibility, however, they usually lack provisioning for network robustness. For example, outdoor deployments of wireless network devices (e.g., base stations, relay nodes, mesh routers, antennas) especially in harsh and inhospitable environment, are susceptible to physical damage or component malfunction caused by either natural disruptions (e.g., earthquakes, floods, tornadoes), technical (e.g., power outage, battery depletion, misconfigurations), human errors (e.g., damage to fiber lines in back/front-haul networks, damage to communications components) or intentional and malicious sabotage by humans. Moreover, the wireless communication medium itself is prone to various types of interference and impairments that may cause intermittent disconnection and transient errors. These failures may cause drastic effects on network performance and hinders network operation. The capability of a network to deliver data successfully in a timely manner and continue its services despite the presence of failures and attacks is referred to as survivability and is an important characteristic which must be provisioned.