The design and implementation of a session layer for delay-tolerant networks

The DTN architecture is based around sender-initiated unicast communication that is insufficient or inconvenient to meet the needs of many applications. To address these limitations, we define a DTN session layer and associated extensions to the DTN bundle protocol that more naturally support receiver-driven applications and multicast communication. Within a session, we provide mechanisms allowing applications to convey ordering relationships between successive transmissions that can be used by the network to help ensure a distributed application’s delivery ordering expectations are met. We also extend the bundle protocol’s expiration procedures to support more efficient network utilization by allowing in-network deletion of obsolete messages. We present the design rationale and describe our implementation of these mechanisms and discuss their advantages in meeting the needs of several popular types of applications.