Advanced Computer

Networks (CS ZG525)

BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Virendra S Shekhawat
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

First Semester 2015-2016

Lecture-14 [10th Oct 2015]

Agenda
History of Delay Tolerant Networking

[CH-25]

Lecture Slides

DTN Architecture and Bundle Protocol

[CH-26]

Reading
A Delay-Tolerant Network Architecture for Challenged Internets [K Fall,
2003]
www.kevinfall.com/seipage/papers/p27-fall.pdf

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First Sem 2015-16

Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Topics
Challenged Networks and their Limitations
Solutions
Fixing Internet Protocols
Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs)

DTN Architecture
Bundle Protocol

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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Introduction
In 2002, Kevin Fall started to design terrestrial
networks, called as IPN
termed this new architecture as Delay/Disruption Tolerant
Networks

Initial efforts have been focused on combining the

solutions for MANETs and Sensor networks

Later, such networks have also been termed as

challenged networks
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Challenged Networks
Characteristics
Latency
Bandwidth Limitations
Error Probability
Node Longevity (aka life time)
Path Stability

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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Path and Link Characteristics[1]

High Latency Low Data Rate
Transmission and propagation delay is proportional
to transmission medium (ignoring queuing delay)
For transmission rates of 10 Kbps having delays in
the order of few seconds
e.g. Underwater acoustic modems and low power radios
for sensor nodes

Asymmetric data rates (downlink and uplink)

e.g. Remote instruments, Military assets
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Path and Link Characteristics[2]

Disconnection
Disconnection due to fault (may occur in
conventional networks as well)
Non-faulty disconnections occur due to motion
and low-duty-cycle system operation
Disconnection due to low-duty-cycle is common
among low capacity devices (e.g. sensor networks)

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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Path and Link Characteristics[3]

Long Queuing Times
Queuing delay is significant in multi hop paths (in sec)
Due to disconnection queuing delay may become
large (hours, even in days)

Problem:
Source initiated retransmission becomes costly in
such networks
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First Sem 2015-16

Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Network Architectures
Interoperability Considerations
Challenged networks are not designed with
consideration of interoperability as such
Getting communication between nodes itself is
biggest challenge!

Security
In challenged n/w bandwidth is a precious resource
hence uses should be authenticated
End to end authentication approaches are not
worth Why?
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

End System Characteristics

Limited Longevity
Nodes are placed in hostile environment like military
networks, sensor networks in coal mines etc.
Node life is limited and long periods of disconnections

Low Duty Cycle Operation

To increase longevity for battery power operated nodes, low
duty-cycle is desirable

Limited Resources
Limited memory and processing power
Implication: Previous data should be transmitted before new
data is produced otherwise node will loose the data
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Solutions
Fixing Internet Protocols
PEP, Boosters and Proxies
E-mail

Come up with an Additional Architecture

Delay Tolerant Message Based Overlay
Architecture

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First Sem 2015-16

Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Fixing Internet Protocols

PEP, Boosters and Proxies (aka middle boxes)
Discouraged by the IETF as violating the fate sharing
principle (connection state should reside only in end
hosts)
They may keep some information for connection state
Proxies are application specific . Inter Proxy
communication is not exists at this point of time

E-mail (aka asynchronous message delivery system)

Positives: Flexible naming, asynchronous message based
operation, and in-band error reporting
Negatives: Lack of dynamic routing, Weakly defined
delivery semantics, lack of consistent application
interface
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Problems With TCP/IP Network

IP routing drops a packet if next hop route is not
available immediately
Problematic with frequently disconnected links

Internets fate sharing does not hold for many such

networks
It may be quite useful to hand-off its end node connection
state if it has other tasks to accomplish, particularly for
power or memory limited nodes

Usually Internet applications are designed for low

delay that may not be suitable for challenged
networks
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

What is DTN?
A Delay Tolerant Networking architecture (DTN) provides
interoperability between different challenged networks
End to end message delivery is defined as bundle layer
The bundle layer forms an overlay that employs
persistent storage to help combat network interruption
Devices implementing the bundle layer are called DTN
nodes
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Delay Tolerant Message Based

Overlay Architecture

DTN Architecture composed of regions and gateways

DTN Gateways are point which can serve as a basis for both
translation (region specific encodings) as well as enforce policy and
control information
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

The Bundle Protocol

The bundle protocol ties
together the lower-layer
protocols
Application programs can
communicate across the same
or different sets of lower-layer
protocols
A bundle-protocol agent stores
and forwards entire bundles
(or bundle fragments) between
nodes
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

DTN Nodes

Source: Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Networks (DTNs): A Tutorial - Version 3.2, Sept 2015

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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Delay Isolation via Transport

Protocol Termination

Source: Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Networks (DTNs): A Tutorial - Version 3.2, Sept 2015
First Sem 2015-16

Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Custody Transfers
The bundle protocol supports node-to-node
retransmission (at both the transport and the
bundle layers) by means of custody transfers
A bundle custodian must store a bundle until
either
another node accepts custody (ack is required here)
expiration of the bundles time-to-live

Points of retransmission progressively forward

toward the destination using Custody Transfers
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Classes of Bundle Service

Custody Transfer
Delegation of retransmission responsibility

Return Receipt
Confirmation by the destination to the source

Priority of Delivery
Bulk, Normal, or Expedited

Time to Live
Congestion control is the main purpose of this
function
Notion of congestion in DTN is insufficient memory to
store the bundle at DTN node
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

End Points
A bundle endpoint is a set of zero or more nodes
that all identify themselves by the same
endpoint ID
An endpoint ID is a uniform resource identifier
(URI) text string using the syntax
<scheme_name>:<scheme-specific_part>
ex. dtn://abc/file1

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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Path Selection and Scheduling

Routes are made of contacts which are
communication opportunities
A contact has a number of parameters:

Start & end times

Capacity (aka buffer at nodes)
Latency
Endpoints
Direction

Problems include determining existence of

contacts, knowing the state of pending messages
and efficiently assigning messages to contacts
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Convergence Layer
The bundle forwarding function requires an
underlying reliable delivery mechanism with
message boundaries.
An implementation of DTN would require
transport-layer specific convergence layers
For example, TCP would require a convergence layer
to add message boundaries

Reliable delivery can, at worst, be implemented

with timeouts and retransmission
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Time Synchronization
DTN requires a form of time synchronization.
It is used for:
Identifying message fragments.
Purging messages which have exceeded their lifetimes.

The paper recommends time synchronization to on

the order of 1ms.
It is questionable whether this would be possible in
the varied networks that DTN is supposed to work
with
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

DTN Applications[1]
Military and Intelligence
Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) for wireless
communication and monitoring, cargo tracking, search and
rescue communication, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
communication and control

Public Service and Safety:

Security and disaster communication, search and rescue
communication, humanitarian relief monitoring, smart-city
event-response, smart transportation networks, smart
electric-power networks, global airport-traffic control,
infrastructure-integrity monitoring, unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV) communication and control, remote learning
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

DTN Applications[2]
Environmental Monitoring:
Animal migration, soil properties and stability,
atmospheric and oceanographic conditions,
seismological events

Undersea Communication:
Submarines, unmanned undersea vehicles, oil and
mining undersurface sensors. Beneath the surface of
water, only sound is effective for communication over
distance, and the speed of sound in water is only
about 1 km/sec
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

DTN Applications[3]
Commercial
Cargo and vehicle tracking (by road, rail, sea, and air),
in-store and in-warehouse asset tracking, data
transactions (e.g., financial, reservations),
agricultural crop monitoring, processing-plant
monitoring, communication in underground mines

Space Agencies
International Space Station communication
(currently operational for research), interplanetary
communication, future space-debris monitoring.
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Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Thank You !

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First Sem 2015-16

Advanced Computer Networks CS G525

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus