Autonomous pickup and delivery for delay tolerant mobile networks

Delay tolerant mobile networks are characterized by the possible non-existence of end-to-end paths. For instance, environmental factors and energy constraints in mobile ad hoc and wireless sensor networks make the preservation of end-to-end connectivity challenging. To overcome the problem, the "store-carry-and-forward" (SCF) paradigm has been proposed, where mobile nodes may physically carry and transport messages between nodes to facilitate eventual message delivery. We propose a suite of autonomous and dynamic SCF algorithms, together called pickup and delivery (PAD) Routing, which adapt the traditional algorithmic vehicle routing problem (VRP) and covering tour problem (CTP) to the context of delay tolerant mobile networks. The objectives of PAD routing are to reduce the message transport delay and to increase the delivery ratio in the presence of network partitions. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of these algorithms