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Communication in intermittently-connected networks

University of British Columbia

Communication in the face of intermittent, short-lived and possibly unreliable connectivity can be difficult when relying solely on Internet protocols, such as IP and TCP, which have an implicit assumption of well-connectedness. Furthermore, use of these protocols is impossible when there is no fully connected end-to-end path between hosts. We present Euonym, an architecture that uses a layer of persistent names to identify hosts, networks and services, and allows arbitrary intermediate helper hosts to be interposed between endpoints on-the-fly. These helper hosts can provide routing, buffering and other support services to help relieve reliance on end-to-end paths. They can be placed to take advantage of intermittent connectivity when and as it arises and be used to supplement connectivity with untraditional networking and transport mechanisms, such as data mules and the postal network, without any additional support at the end hosts. We show that simple disconnection tolerance and use of intermediate hosts facilitates communication and promotes connectivity in intermittently-connected networks.

Text

2009-12-11

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16606

Computer Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace