Research On The Buffer Management Algorithm In Delay-tolerant Networks

DTN （Delay and Disruption-Tolerant Interoperable Networking）is a hot issuein the research field of sensor networks in recent years. It has a wide range ofapplications including interplanetary network, rural networks, military networks,Ad Hoc network. Due to the unpredictable network topology and intermittentconnectivity features, a complete path between the source node and destinationnode is unlikely to exist, and the messages will experience a long delivery delay. SoDTN employ the notion of “storage-carry-forward” routing which leads to manystudies on DTN being different from the traditional communication networks. Thecurrent research focuses on the routing and network congestion control in DTN.There exists packet loss when the node buffer overflows. So the buffer managementis an important part of the network congestion control. However, there is a littlework on the buffer management. Based on the summary of DTN network buffermanagement algorithms in recent years, an Area-based Buffer Management Policy(ABMP) is proposed. The main content of this paper is as follows:Firstly, this paper introduces the DTN development history, the key issues ofthe DTN, characteristics and applications of the DTN and the research significanceof buffer management algorithm.Secondly, we present DTN routing research problem, and describe somecurrent typical routing algorithms, and analyze their advantages and disadvantages.Thirdly, we introduce the DTN network buffer management. We analyze thekey issues, and describe several typical buffer management algorithms.Finally，This paper proposes an Area-based Buffer Management Policy. Ourscheme determines the order of discarded messages based on estimating the numberof messages in different divided areas and analyzing the motion characteristics ofthe node. The simulation results show that our algorithm can apparently improvethe delivery ratio and decrease the overhead ratio compared with other buffermanagement algorithms.