Optimal Buffer Management Scheme to Maximize the Message Delivery Rate in Delay Tolerant Networks

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are able to provide communication services in challenged networks where the end-to-end path between the source and destination does not exist. In order to increase the probability of message delivery, DTN routing mechanisms require nodes in the network to store and carry messages in their local buffer and to replicate many copies. When the limited buffer is consumed, choosing appropriate messages to discard is critical to maximizingthe system performance. Current approaches for this are sub-optimal or assumed unrealistic conditions. In this paper, we propose an optimal buffer management scheme for the realistic situations where the bandwidth is limited and messages vary in size. In our scheme, we design a message discard policy that maximizes the message delivery rate. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of our proposal.