Bundle Layer End-to-end Retransmission Mechanism

Abstract

Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) has been proposed as a global overlay architecture to provide network connectivity in challenged environments such as deep-space communications field. Bundle Protocol along with its convergence layer protocols transform end-to-end reliability into questionable hop-by-hop reliable communication and imposes a two-tier routing policy that allows flexible routes only within regions. In this paper we propose a Bundle layer end-to-end reliability mechanism (BLER) and evaluate its performance in a DTN testbed in conjunction with similar mechanisms. We highlight the advantages of BLER mechanism in space communication scenarios which cannot be adequately addressed by the current DTN architecture and hop-by-hop reliability mechanisms in general.