DTNperf_3: A further enhanced tool for Delay-/Disruption- Tolerant Networking Performance evaluation

Delay-/Disruption- Tolerant Networking (DTN) was first conceived to cope with the impairments of Inter-Planetary Internet. Then its scope was enlarged to cover all “challenged networks”, where long delays, disruption, link intermittency and other challenges prevent, or make difficult, the use of ordinary Internet architecture. To assess DTN performance in such heterogeneous scenarios as space communications (including both satellite and deep space) and wireless sensor networks, it is essential to develop suitable evaluation tools, with highly flexible use. In this paper we present the third major release of DTNperf, a client-server evaluation tool designed to assess goodput and to provide logs in DTN Bundle Protocol (BP) architectures. It has been greatly extended in many respects, including full support of both DTN2 and ION (the BP reference implementation and that developed by NASA JPL, respectively). The aim of the paper is to present both new and enhanced features and a variety of application examples, mainly focused on satellite and space communications, in order to promote its use within the DTN community. DTNperf_3 is to be included in DTN2, as were previous versions, and for the first time also in ION.