DTN Serial Convergence Layer with Multiple Access Control & Neighbour Discovery

Delay Tolerant Network with New Serial Convergence Layer (DTN-NSCL) is a wireless serial RS-232 communication and networking protocol based on DTN2 reference implementation. Its novelty lies in the incorporation of multiple access control and neighbour discovery onto Delay Tolerant Network with Original Serial Convergence Layer (DTN-OSCL). This new aprotocol is able to provide long-haul communication and networking with high accomodation to common issue of environmental disturbances and interruptions. The authors have implemented a testbed to evaluate the performance of this new protocol. Experimental results show the success of the DTN-NSCL implementation as demonstrated in a long-range network using the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band. The results also highlight the significant improvements over the DTN-OSCL where the former is able to discover its neighbours on the fly and support simultaneous serial communication among more than 2 nodes while the latter is only able to support point-to-point serial communication with pre-registered neighbours.