Modeling Restrained Epidemic Routing on Complex Networks

To realize an efficient DTN (Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking) routing, it is required to quickly deliver the message from the source node to the destination node as well as to quickly delete disused message replicas from the network. Epidemic routing, which indefinitely forwards message replicas to all encountered nodes, realizes the near-optimal message delivery delay when a limited number of messages are transferred. However, its performance is significantly degraded when a number of messages are transferred simultaneously. In our previous work, we have proposed a simple but effective extension to epidemic routing called restrained epidemic routing, which intentionally suppresses message forwardings at the later stage of epidemic-style message dissemination. In this paper, we analyze the characteristics of restrained epidemic routing when the contact relation between nodes is given by a general contact model such as complex networks. Specifically, we describe the dynamics of restrained epidemic routing on a complex network with a given degree distribution as differential equations using the degree-based mean field approximation.