Performance modeling of network coding based epidemic routing in DTNs

In Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs), how to transmit data efficiently is one of the most important issues. Recently, Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) is proposed as a promising approach to improve data transmission efficiency in DTNs. To facilitate the development of deployment of RLNC based routing protocols, it is imperative to quantify the performance gain brought by RLNC in a rigorous and systematic way. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to evaluate the data transmission performance of RLNC based epidemic routing in DTNs. In the model, we consider that multiple unicast communication sessions compete for limited transmission capacity. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of our analytical model and demonstrate the significant performance improvement for data transmission in DTNs by using RLNC. Our work in this paper provides a general tool for performance evaluation and useful guidelines for designing RLNC based routing protocols in DTNs.