Desai, Vaibhav2017-03-142017-03-142016-11https://hdl.handle.net/11299/185097University of Minnesota M.S.E.E. thesis.November 2016. Major: Electrical/Computer Engineering. Advisors: Marc Riedel, Zhi-Li Zhang. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 83 pages.Communication systems rely on underlying networks and networking infrastructure to send information from one participating node to another. In this process of data transmission, the sent information experiences delays in the network. The amount of network delay depends on the underlying network, the processing elements (such as routers, switches etc.) and time taken for physical transmission. These delays are constituted by various paths that transmitted packets take and queues that they wait in before arriving at the destination. The delays ``emulate'' temporary data storage. This study explores and analyzes this transient storage in different types of networks. The study introduces transient storage and data cycling from the perspective of physics and in electro-optical computer networks. Such transient storage can be used to solve problems where data storage and data validity is ephemeral. For example, handling packets from new flows at an OpenFlow switch while it awaits handling rules from the controller or distribution of data generated by a sensor network where data becomes invalid after a short time. Furthermore, transient data storage can be used to manage context in fast changing networks where central control or storage is hard to implement. Transient data storage in networks utilizes the network bandwidth which would otherwise simply remain unused. In this work, transient storage, leveraging networking and queuing delays is used to build an ephemeral storage system by creating loops of networked nodes. Data can be cycled on loops for temporary storage before being used. A loop of nodes is used to demonstrate the idea of data cycling and transient storage. Data cycling experiments are setup to characterize and study its effects on network traffic. Further, applications of transient storage are discussed. A novel application of transient data storage for accumulative counting in vehicular networks is developed and analyzed in detail. This application is implemented and simulated on a network simulator to study its performance and sensitivity to variation of tunable parameters.enData CycleNetwork bufferingNetwork LoopsNetworksTemporary storageTransient DataThesis or Dissertation