A Cost Analysis of Routing Algorithms in Pedestrian-Based Delay Tolerant Networks

Abstract

Opportunistic communication is one of the key technologies for advertisement, information sharing, disaster evacuation guidance in delay-tolerant networks (DTNs), vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), and so on. The efficiency of message delivery in opportunistic communication is correlated to the routing protocols and the movement model of mobile entities. In this paper, we focus on message delivery based on opportunistic communication by pedestrians who move based on Levy walk and Random walk movement models on the city’s road network. Moreover, we introduce roadside units located in the city, which play a role in the distributed message cache. We assume Random walk and Levy walk as pedestrian mobility models and Epidemic, Spray and Wait, and PRoPHET as the routing protocols and analyze the influence of roadside units, pedestrian walk patterns, and the routing protocols of opportunistic communication on costs of message delivery. Our simulation results clarify the difference in routing protocols regarding network costs. We also discuss a trade-off between network cost and message delivery ratio according to the results.