Abstract:

Complex environment in delay tolerant networks may lead to node or link failure. In addition, the continuous movement of nodes and intermittent connectivity of the links also bring challenges to the reliable topology control. Effective reliable topology control schemes based on time-space graph are proposed in this paper, which are suitable for delay tolerant networks where nodes periodically move, such as satellite networks, interplanetary networks, other space network, etc. First, the network topology is transformed into a space-time graph. Then, the reliable topology control problem is defined. In the case that the network is connected, the topology control aims at finding the most reliable path for any pair of nodes and minimizing the transmission overhead. Simulation shows that the proposed methods can guarantee the reliability and reduce the transmission overhead. So the proposed topology control schemes are applicable to delay tolerant networks with predictable periodic topology.

Key words: delay tolerant networks, topology, satellite networks, space-time graph, reliability