Greedyflow: Distributed greedy packet routing between landmarks in DTNs

Abstract

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) have attracted much research interest recently due to its adaptability in areas without infrastructures. In such scenarios, moving data from one place (landmark) to another place (landmark) is essential for data communication between different areas. However, current DTN routing algorithms either fail to fully utilize node mobility or have additional requirements that cannot be satisfied easily in DTNs. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a distributed greedy routing algorithm, namely GreedyFlow, for efficient packet routing between landmarks in DTNs. GreedyFlow builds a local traffic map and a global landmark map on each node. The local traffic map indicates the node’s knowledge about the amount of traffic (node transition) between landmarks in the area where it primarily visits. The global landmark map shows the distribution of landmarks in the system and is built offline. In packet routing, the global landmark map shows the general packet forwarding direction, while the local traffic map helps determine the next-hop landmark on the fastest path in the forwarding direction. As a result, packets are greedily forwarded toward their destination landmarks. We also propose advanced components to enhance the consistency of local traffic maps and exploit node-based forwarding, both of which help improve the packet routing efficiency. Extensive real trace driven experiments demonstrate the high efficiency of GreedyFlow.