Independent DTNs message deletion mechanism for multi-copy routing scheme

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the independent message deletion mechanism for Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) multi-copy routing schemes, and the enhancement of this method with the knowledge of human mobility patterns. This mechanism can optimize the resource utilization and improve message delivery performance. In DTNs, communication is achieved by the movement of mobile devices and the ability to store-carry-and-forward the messages. Since contacts in this network occur opportunistically, multi-copy routing scheme suggests messages to be replicated, carried and forwarded by several devices to enhance the delivery ratio though it consumes greater resources compared to single-copy routing scheme. We propose the method to optimize the resource utilization in multi-copy routing scheme by efficiently deleting the copy of delivered message. This method reduces storage consumption, and avoids devices from wasting their bandwidth, and energy, hence, improves the performance of DTNs message delivery in multi-copy routing scheme. We have taken the intrinsic characteristic of human movements, known as, "Human Gathering Points" to enhance our proposed method. We evaluate the proposed method in the simulations with real human movement data trace on three major DTNs multi-copy routing schemes, Epidemic, Spray and Wait, and ProPHET. The result shows significant improvement in message delivery (10--50%) while reduces the resource consumption (overhead) by 30--70%. Its independent characteristic makes it possible to be applied with any multicopy routing protocol though the degree of impact is varied based on the underlying routing scheme.