Relay Buffer Assisted DTN Bundle Protocol Design via Network Coding

Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) is a type of end-to-end networking architecture for long delay and frequent interruption, which provides important applications in many fields, e.g., interstellar network, internet of vehicles and military network. However, as the amount of data and the number of data sources increase, the relay buffer in DTN cannot effectively be scheduled for storing and forwarding data, which lowers the transmission efficiency in DTN relay scenario. In this paper, we use the relay node buffer to forward data of different priorities together via network coding (NC) to improve the utilization rate of the relay node. We first establish a multi-sources sharing one relay network model based on DTN protocol framework. Then we propose three relay forwarding schemes for the multi-source and multi-priority services or applications: 1) priority forwarding scheme; 2) bundle merging scheme; and 3) network coding scheme. Through theoretical analysis and simulation experiments, we prove that the supplement of NC can improve the data forward efficiency of relay node, enhance the delivery rate and reduce the transmission delay of the DTN relay communication system.