Mechanisms to enhance versatility, robustness and reliability in delay tolerant networks

• Main Author: Lee, Feng Cheng
• Other Authors: Yeo Chai Kiat
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computer systems organization::Computer-communication networks
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/43926
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is a network architecture which has the capability of overcoming difficulties posed by the disruptive nature of challenged networks. It is suitable for deployments that have infrastructure constraints whereby connectivity among peers is intermittent and interoperability in heterogeneous network access technologies is a requirement. In the existing DTN implementation, there are some issues with the discovery mechanism, convergence layers, security and routing protocols. This thesis contributes a few key enhancements for DTN. To achieve highly versatile interoperability support in DTN, a new ‘plug-n-play’ framework is proposed. It supports DTN node cascading and allows parallel network features that will expand DTN peers’ access capability. Adding to the framework, a new Ethernet convergence layer using raw socket programming is developed. This is more lightweight than the current TCP convergence layer to support WiFi and other access technology. In Probabilistic Routing Protocol using History of Encounters and Transitivity (PRoPHET) for DTN, the delivery predictability metric involved can be exploited by adversary nodes to improve their flooding attacks. The flooding attacks can be more penetrative as malicious nodes have prior knowledge of the delivery predictability of their victims. To overcome this threat, a queue buffer policy is formulated to utilize the delivery predictability metric in PRoPHET to mitigate the flooding attacks. The proposed policy is shown to be capable of alleviating five different types of flooding attacks on DTN using PRoPHET.