TY - JOUR
T1 - A Survey on mobile social networks
T2 - Applications, platforms, system architectures, and future research directions
AU - Hu, Xiping
AU - Chu, Terry H.S.
AU - Leung, Victor C.M.
AU - Ngai, Edith C.H.
AU - Kruchten, Philippe
AU - Chan, Henry C.B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 1998-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2015/7/1
Y1 - 2015/7/1
N2 - Mobile social networks (MSNs) have become increasingly popular in supporting many novel applications since emerging in the recent years. Their applications and services are of great interest to service providers, application developers, and users. This paper distinguishes MSNs from conventional social networks and provides a comprehensive survey of MSNs with regard to platforms, solutions, and designs of the overall system architecture. We review the popular MSN platforms and experimental solutions for existing MSN applications and services and present the dominant mobile operating systems on which MSNs are implemented. We then analyze and propose the overall architectural designs of conventional and future MSN systems. In particular, we present the architectural designs from two perspectives: from the client side to the server side, and from the wireless data transmission level to the terminal utilization level. We further introduce and compare the unique features, services, and key technologies of two generations of architectural designs of MSN systems. Then, we classify the existing MSN applications and propose one special form of MSN, i.e., vehicular social network, and demonstrate its unique features and challenges compared with common MSNs. Finally, we summarize the major challenges for on-going MSN research and outline possible future research directions.
AB - Mobile social networks (MSNs) have become increasingly popular in supporting many novel applications since emerging in the recent years. Their applications and services are of great interest to service providers, application developers, and users. This paper distinguishes MSNs from conventional social networks and provides a comprehensive survey of MSNs with regard to platforms, solutions, and designs of the overall system architecture. We review the popular MSN platforms and experimental solutions for existing MSN applications and services and present the dominant mobile operating systems on which MSNs are implemented. We then analyze and propose the overall architectural designs of conventional and future MSN systems. In particular, we present the architectural designs from two perspectives: from the client side to the server side, and from the wireless data transmission level to the terminal utilization level. We further introduce and compare the unique features, services, and key technologies of two generations of architectural designs of MSN systems. Then, we classify the existing MSN applications and propose one special form of MSN, i.e., vehicular social network, and demonstrate its unique features and challenges compared with common MSNs. Finally, we summarize the major challenges for on-going MSN research and outline possible future research directions.
KW - Mobile social networking
KW - application
KW - opportunistic networks
KW - platform
KW - service
KW - system architecture
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940107823&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/COMST.2014.2371813
DO - 10.1109/COMST.2014.2371813
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84940107823
SN - 1553-877X
VL - 17
SP - 1557
EP - 1581
JO - IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
JF - IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
IS - 3
M1 - 6960871
ER -