A Sociability-Based Routing Scheme for Delay-Tolerant Networks

The problem of choosing the best forwarders in Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) is crucial for minimizing the delay in packet delivery and for keeping the amount of generated traffic under control. In this paper, we introduce sociable routing, a novel routing strategy that selects a subset of optimal forwarders among all the nodes and relies on them for an efficient delivery. The key idea is that of assigning to each network node a time-varying scalar parameter which captures its social behavior in terms of frequency and types of encounters. This sociability concept is widely discussed and mathematically formalized. Simulation results of a DTN of vehicles in urban environment, driven by real mobility traces, and employing sociable routing, is presented. Encouraging results show that sociable routing, compared to other known protocols, achieves a good compromise in terms of delay performance and amount of generated traffic.