DTN routing with back-pressure based replica distribution

Replication routing can greatly improve the data delivery performance by enabling multiple replicas of the same packet to be transmitted towards its destination simultaneously. It has been studied extensively recently and is now a widely accepted routing paradigm in delay tolerant networks (DTNs). However, in this field, the issue of how to maximize the utilization efficiency of limited replication quota in a resource-saving manner and therefore making replication routing to be more efficient in networks with limited resources has not received enough attention. In this paper, we propose a DTN routing protocol with back-pressure based replica distribution. Our protocol models the replica distribution problem from a resource allocation perspective and it utilizes the idea of back-pressure algorithm, which can be used for providing efficient network resource allocation for replication quota assignment among encountered nodes. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms existing replication routing protocols in terms of packet delay and delivery ratio.