A Delay-Tolerant Network Architecture

for Challenged Internets

SIGCOMM03
Kevin Fall (kfall@intel-research.net)
Intel Research, Berkeley

Nov. 26, 2003

Presented by Sookhyun, Yang

Contents

Introduction

Background

Challenges for Internetworking

Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN)

Application Interface

Conclusion

Computer Network Lab

Lab Seminar 2003

Introduction (1/2)

TCP/IP based Internet

Packet-switched model
Implicit assumption

End-to-end path between source and destination node exits

Maximum round-trip time between any node pairs in the network is not
excessive
End-to-end packet drop probability is small

Challenged network

Violate one or more of Internets assumptions

Very long delay path
Frequent network partitions, etc..

Have their own specialized protocol stacks

Have naming semantics for their particular application domain
Not be well served by the current end-to-end TCP/IP

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Introduction (2/2)

Challenged network (contd)

Examples

Terrestrial mobile networks

Exotic media networks
Military ad-hoc networks
sensor/actuator networks

In this paper

Achieve interoperability between very diverse networks

Propose a network architecture and application interface
Form an internetworking of challenged internets

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Challenges for Internetworking

Path and link characteristics

High latency, low data rates

Disconnection

Faulty
Non-faulty : motion and low-duty-cycle operation

Long queuing times

Need to be stored for potentially long periods of time at routers

Network architectures

Interoperability considerations
Security

Endpoint involving security is not very attractive

End system characteristics

Limited longevity

Conventional end-to-end acknowledgement for reliable delivery should be delegated

Low duty cycle operation

Scheduling a-priori in concert with path selection

Limited resources

Do not necessarily have to wait for an end-to-end acknowledgement

Computer Network Lab

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Delay Tolerant Networking (1/3)

Characteristics

Operate as an overlay above the existing transport layers

Based on an abstraction of message switching

Bundle
Bundle forwarder (DTN gateway)
Store-and-forward gateway function between different networks

source

DTN gateway

DTN gateway

destination

Constituent of DTN architecture

Region
Similar network stack and addressing

DTN gateway
Interconnection point between region boundaries
Logically two of halves

Name Tuple
{Region name, Entity name}

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Delay Tolerant Networking (2/3)

Architecture
Region A - Internet

data

{B, R2}
data

{A, R1}

Region D

{A, R2}

{D, R4}

Region B Sensor network

data

{C, R4}

Region C - Intranet
UserHost
{A, UserHost}

{C, R3}

{B, R3}
data

DTN gateway
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Delay Tolerant Networking

DTN Gateway (1/5)

Routing (path scheduling) and message scheduling

End-to-end routing path cannot be assumed to exist

Route
Cascade of time-dependent contacts (communication opportunity) from source to
destination
Contact = {start_time, end_time, }

Measure contacts predictability

Select the next message to be sent
Choose next-hop forwarders
RPC Server

DTN
Application
DTN library+RPC

Scheduling and Message Forwarding

Internet
Convergence
Layer

Sockets
TDP

Computer Network Lab

Other
Convergence
Layer

SCTP

(TBD)

IP

802.3

802.11

Database
Manager

Sensor Net API

Sensor Network Other Transport

Stack
Or
Raw Protocols
(TBD)

File
Store

Bundle
data

UDP

SensorNet
Convergence
Layer

Other

Serial
Port

Lab Seminar 2003

File
Store

Bundle
data

Delay Tolerant Networking

DTN Gateway (2/5)

Class of service (CoS)

Priority-based resource allocation

US Postal Service

Non-interactive
Coarse granularity and intuitive character : low, ordinary, high

Option of reliable delivery

Handled differently by the routing system

Persistent storage
Custody transfer

Custody transfer and reliability

Two distinct types of message routing nodes

Persistent (P)
Non-persistent (NP)

Hop-by-hop reliability

Acknowledged delivery of message from one DTN hop to next

Delegate reliable delivery responsibility

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Delay Tolerant Networking

DTN Gateway (3/5)

Supplementary function for transport layer

Bundle forwarding function

Transport-protocol-specific convergence layer

Within the regions containing a DTN P node

Reliable delivery capability with message boundaries

Failure detection

Retransmission timer

Congestion control

Handle of contention for the persistent storage

Buffer space as a function of CoS

Shared priority queue for custody transfer

Messages are spooled based on priority and useful lifetime

Priority inversion & head-of-line blocking problem

Computer Network Lab

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10

Delay Tolerant Networking

DTN Gateway (4/5)

Time synchronization

Identify message fragments

Purge messages that have exceeded their source-specified lifetime
DTNs scheduling and path selection
DTNs congestion management technique

Security

Verifiable access to the carriage of traffic at a particular class of service

Avoid carrying traffic long distances later found to be prohibited
Postage stamp
ID of sender || Class of service || Cryptographic material

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Delay Tolerant Networking

DTN Gateway (5/5)

Security (contd)
EKRA(M || CA)
Sender A

EKRB(M || CB)

DTN gateway B

EKRC(M || CC)

DTN gateway C

destination

DKUA(EKRA(M || CA)) D
=KU
MB(E
|| KR
CAB(M || CB)) = M || CB

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Application Interface

Be careful not to expect timely response

Generally operate where a request/response turn-around time

exceeds the expected longevity of the client and server processes

Supported function

Name tuple creation, manipulation, and registration

Class of service classifier
Authentication information

Continue operate in the face of reboots or network partitioning as

much as possible

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Conclusion

DTNs contribution

Provide interoperable communications between a wide range of

networks
Advocate a change to the basic service model and system interface,
mostly accustomed Internet-style applications
Suggest model while keeping the current service model and existing
TCP/IP based protocols constant

DTNs different choices in the architectural design

Messages vs. packets

Hop-by-hop reliability and security vs. end-to-end
Name-based routing vs. address-based routing
Partially-connected routing vs. fully-connected network graph

Computer Network Lab

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14

DTN Gateway

DTN library+RPC

RPC Server

DTN
Application

Scheduling and Message Forwarding

Internet
Convergence
Layer

Sockets
TDP

Other
Convergence
Layer

SCTP

(TBD)

IP

802.3

802.11

Database
Manager

Sensor Net API

Sensor Network Other Transport

Stack
Or
Raw Protocols
(TBD)

File
Store

Bundle
data

UDP

SensorNet
Convergence
Layer

Other

Serial
Port

File
Store

Bundle
data

< DTN (Bundle) Gateway >

Computer Network Lab

Lab Seminar 2003

15

DTN Gateway

DTN library+RPC

RPC Server

DTN
Application

Scheduling and Message Forwarding

Internet
Convergence
Layer

Sockets
TDP

Other
Convergence
Layer

SCTP

(TBD)

IP

802.3

802.11

Database
Manager

Sensor Net API

Sensor Network Other Transport

Stack
Or
Raw Protocols
(TBD)

File
Store

Bundle
data

UDP

SensorNet
Convergence
Layer

Other

Serial
Port

File
Store

Bundle
data

< DTN (Bundle) Gateway >

Computer Network Lab

Lab Seminar 2003

16