Methodological evaluation of architectural alternatives for an aeronautical delay tolerant network

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn this paper, we use graph analysis to evaluate the network architecture of a large scale delay tolerant network (DTN) of transoceanic aircraft. At LCN (Local Computer Networks) 2014 we analyzed information propagation inside a pure opportunistic version of this network, a scenario constructed from more than 2,500 traces of transatlantic flights in which communications relied only on the sporadic contacts between airplanes. As only a small percentage of the nodes were capable of performing efficient air-to-ground communications we concluded the need to devise a more suitable network architecture by combining opportunistic and satellite communication systems. We propose a generic methodology based on graph analysis (both static and dynamic temporal) to evaluate the different ways to create this new architecture. We show the architectural combination that most improves the network delivery performance while minimizing its deployment costs.

Measuring QoS in an Aeronautical Opportunistic Network Architecture with Limited Access to a Satellite Communications Backhaul

“…(iii) We show that our proposed network architecture [7] reduces delivery times, increases delivery ratio, and improves bandwidth allocation fairness when compared to a pure opportunistic network architecture.…”

“…The immediate use of the architecture presented at [7] revolves around applications that do not require an explicit response, for instance, the following: (i) Regarding Passenger Data. Examples of such applications are the delivery of mail or twitter messages (ii) Regarding Airline Data.…”

“…The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate how the architecture presented in [7] behaves when noninteractive Internet-like application traffic is deployed into the network. We offer measures of several QoS related aspects such as the delivery time, delivery ratio, and the degree of fairness on bandwidth allocation.…”

“…In Section 3 we describe our network model including network configuration, traffic model, routing protocol, and deployment scenario. This section also includes a short description of the scenario used in our previous papers [4,6,7] which acts as the basis for the one used in this paper. In Section 4 we present the several QoS metrics, the experimental methodology, and the obtained results.…”

“…This study showed that the disconnected nature of the network only allowed a small percentage of the nodes of the network (7%) to perform efficient air-to-ground communications (regarding delivery time). Finally, in [7] we solved this problem by deploying a mixed network architecture combining the opportunistic multihop communications used in DTNs, with the direct delivery capabilities of satellite links. We obtained a hierarchical network architecture with two differentiated node types (those with and without satellite link availability).…”