A moving energy-based routing in DTNs with speed heterogeneity

Abstract

In delay tolerant networks (DTNs), the connections between the source and destination node are unstable because of the frequent movements of nodes, which makes the data forwarding algorithms one of the key problems in DTNs. Furthermore, the different moving speeds of nodes can greatly affect their ability to transmit packets. In this paper, we mainly focus upon the data forwarding problem in DTNs with speed heterogeneity (DFSH). We first consider the spread of infectious diseases in multiple populations, after which the delivery delay and the number of copies are calculated. We then introduce the concept of moving energy which is defined as the product of the speed and the number of nodes in unit distance and it is used to measure the data forwarding ability of each node. Based on this concept, we present a moving energy-based routing algorithm with speed heterogeneity (MRSH) which takes the nodes with higher moving energy to forward data packets. To test the theoretical model, we finally perform several extensive trace driven simulations and furthermore estimate the performance of MRSH algorithm. It indicates that MRSH, compared with the other three forwarding strategies, can greatly enhance the delivery ratio while reducing the delivery delay.