Performance study of delay tolerant networks

Abstract

Delay tolerant networks are mobile wireless networks where most of the time there does not exist a complete path from the source to the destination, or such a path is highly unstable. Such networks can be formed among moving vehicles equipped with wireless devices in cities like Singapore. There are always buses and cars moving around in the city. While due to uncertain traffic condition, in the night or in sparse areas, where traffic density becomes low, it is likely that the network is disconnected. In order to utilize this kind of bus networks as backbone network infrastructure, we proposed a delay tolerant network routing protocol that is able to achieve relatively high delivery rate as required by SMS messaging or email sending. Our algorithm integrates epidemic routing and mobile assist delivery approaches so as to assure data delivery in both congested and sparse traffic conditions.