  Mobile devices integrating wireless short-range communication technologies
make possible new applications for spontaneous communication, interaction and
collaboration. An interesting approach is to use collaboration to facilitate
communication when mobile devices are not able to establish direct
communication paths. Opportunistic networks, formed when mobile devices
communicate with each other while users are in close proximity, can help
applications still exchange data in such cases. In opportunistic networks
routes are built dynamically, as each mobile device acts according to the
store-carry-and-forward paradigm. Thus, contacts between mobile devices are
seen as opportunities to move data towards destination. In such networks data
dissemination is done using forwarding and is usually based on a
publish/subscribe model. Opportunistic data dissemination also raises questions
concerning user privacy and incentives. Such problems are addressed differently
by various opportunistic data dissemination techniques. In this paper we
analyze existing relevant work in the area of data dissemination in
opportunistic networks. We present the categories of a proposed taxonomy that
captures the capabilities of data dissemination techniques used in such
networks. Moreover, we survey relevant data dissemination techniques and
analyze them using the proposed taxonomy.
