In wireless multi-hop networks such as ad hoc networks and sensor networks, backoff-based opportunistic routing protocols, which make a forwarding decision based on backoff time, have been proposed. In the protocols, each potential forwarder calculates the backoff time based on the product of a weight and global scaling factor. The weight prioritizes potential forwarders and is calculated based on hop counts to the destination of a sender and receiver. The global scaling factor is a predetermined value to map the weight to the actual backoff time. However, there are three common issues derived from the global scaling factor. First, it is necessary to share the predetermined global scaling factor with a centralized manner among all terminals properly for the backoff time calculation. Second, it is almost impossible to change the global scaling factor during the networks are being used. Third, it is difficult to set the global scaling factor to an appropriate value since the value differs among each local surrounding of forwarders. To address the aforementioned issues, this paper proposes a novel decentralized local scaling factor control without relying on a predetermined global scaling factor. The proposed method consists of the following three mechanisms: (1) sender-centric local scaling factor setting mechanism in a decentralized manner instead of the global scaling factor, (2) adaptive scaling factor control mechanism which adapts the local scaling factor to each local surrounding of forwarders, and (3) mitigation mechanism for excessive local scaling factor increases for the local scaling factor convergence. Finally, this paper evaluates the backoff-based opportunistic routing protocol with and without the proposed method using computer simulations.

A city-level digital twin is a critical enabling technology to construct a smart city that helps improve citizens' living conditions and quality of life. Currently, research and development regarding the digital replica city are pursued worldwide. However, many research projects only focus on creating the 3D city model. A mechanism to involve key players, such as data providers, service providers, and application developers, is essential for constructing the digital replica city and producing various city applications. Based on this motivation, the authors of this paper are pursuing a research project, namely Decentralized Digital Twin EcoSystem (D2EcoSys), to create an ecosystem to advance (and self-grow) the digital replica city regarding time and space directions, city services, and values. This paper introduces an overview of the D2EcoSys project: vision, problem statement, and approach. In addition, the paper discusses the recent research results regarding networking technologies and demonstrates an early testbed built in the Kashiwa-no-ha smart city.

In ad hoc networks, broadcast forwarding protocols called OR (opportunistic routing) have been proposed to gain path diversity for higher packet delivery rates and shorter end-to-end delays. In general backoff-based OR protocols, each receiver autonomously makes a forwarding decision by using certain metrics to determine if a random backoff time is to be applied. However, each forwarder candidate must wait for the expiration of the backoff timer before forwarding a packet. Moreover, they cannot gain path diversity if the forwarding path includes local sparse areas, and this degrades performance as it strongly depends on the terminal density. In this paper, we propose a novel OR protocol called PRIOR (prioritized forwarding for opportunistic routing). In PRIOR, a terminal, called a prioritized forwarder and which forwards packets without using a backoff time, is selected from among the neighbours. In addition, PRIOR uses lightweight hop-by-hop retransmission control to mitigate the effect of terminal density. Moreover, we introduce an enhancement to PRIOR to reduce unnecessary forwarding by using an explicit acknowledgement. We evaluate PRIOR in comparison with conventional protocols in computer simulations.