Survey on routing algorithms in opportunistic networks

Opportunistic network are one of the most interesting evolutions of MANETs. In opportunistic network, mobile nodes are enabled to communicate with each other even if a route connecting to them never exists. Therefore, in this network, message delivery relies on opportunistic routing where nodes use store-carry-and-forward paradigm to route the messages. Routes are built dynamically, while messages are routed between the sender and the destination. Any possible node can opportunistically be used as a next hop, if it can bring the message closer to the final destination. These requirements make opportunistic network a challenging research field. In this paper we survey the existing routing algorithms in opportunistic network. The routing algorithms are classified based on their routing behaviour and comparisons among these algorithms are also presented in this paper.