Nuntifix-Modeling of Delay Tolerant Networks : A Technical Report

In the past years, many promising routing algorithms for delay-tolerant networks have been described as well as simulated or even implemented, and also evaluated. Anyone wishing to implement routing into delaytolerant network can select from a wide variation of options, but the choice is hard, as there is no strong comparative evidence to the relative performance of the algorithms. While each algorithm by itself is exciting and adds to our world’s knowledge, one important aspect of research is to understand when to do what. As the algorithm evaluations lack a common basis, comparison between the algorithms is currently impossible: First, most evaluations restrict themselves to comparing against the two extremes, namely direct-contact-only forwarding and flooding; second, each attempt uses a completely different choice of scenario and simulation parameters. In this report, we analyze and evaluate the currently existing algorithm under the common basis in an effort to grasp the strong and weak points of each of them and to see whether its possible to design a hybrid technique that may take advantage of strengths of many techniques.