Challenges in deploying a delay tolerant network

Abstract

Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is the area of networking that addresses challenges in disconnected, disrupted, and networks without end-to-end connection. DTN has been an active area of research in the recent past, there have been attempts to use concepts from DTN to extend the reach of networks to remote rural areas as well. MotoPost" is a solution that is designed to establish a communications framework for rural communities in remote areas using non-real-time store and forward mechanisms and draws inspiration from ongoing research in this area, The concept was developed to address the communication and information access needs of remote rural villages in India which do not have access to communication technologies, but can be extended to other similar locations globally. MotoPost" is based on DTN where dual mode mobile phones are used as data mules to establish an end-to-end data network, we believe this is one of the first attempts to use mobile phones as data mules. In our system we use SMTP as the base application protocol to transfer multimedia messages between MotoPost" nodes. In this paper, we present and discuss findings from a limited field deployment of MotoPost" in rural India. We will specifically focus on the issues related to deploying specific applications and their demands on such a network, including network provisioning and setup as well as economical and technical feasibility for a large scale deployment. The results of the field trial also form the basis for our recommendations on future directions and research issues in this exciting area of research.