A Delay-Tolerant Network Architecture for Challenged Internets

This paper proposes an architecture that uses overlays for achieving interoperability between diverse networks. The motivation behind building this architecture is to address problems with the TCP/IP model with respect to challenged networks. Some of these problems are network partitioning, high latencies and unexpected data transfer delays.

The architecture includes regions and gateways. Gateways are responsible for storing messages to provide reliable delivery. For routing messages they use a naming scheme that uses name tuples. Name tuples are of the form {Region, entity} where region names are unique. Convergence layers add features like reliability, and message boundaries.

Pros:

• Provides in-network storage and retransmissions in challenged networks
• The prototype implementation convinces the practicality of the architecture to a certain extent.

Cons:

• Existing application may need to be changed in adoption of the architecture
• Necessary to evaluate the overhead of using messages instead of packets
• Does it break the end-to-end model?