Study on implementing delay tolerant networking for deep-space communication

Abstract

Network applications must communicate with counterparts across disparate networking environments characterized by significantly different sets of physical and operational constraints; wide variations in transmission latency are particularly troublesome. The proposed Deep-Space Communication, which must encompass both terrestrial and interplanetary links, is an extreme case. The Internet protocols are ill suited for this purpose. This article discusses the current research challenges in the Deep-Space Communication, and identifies the fundamental principles that would underlie a delaytolerant networking (DTN) architecture and describe the main structural elements of that architecture.