Performance analysis of multi-frame message spreading in delay tolerant networks

• We propose a theoretical model to evaluate the performance of multi-frame message spreading in DTNs.
• We extend the theoretical model to the case that nodes are selfish.
• We check the accuracy of our model through simulations.
• We evaluate the impact of the bundles through numerical results.
• We evaluate the impact of the selfishness through numerical results.

Communication opportunities in delay tolerant networks are uncertain, so the message is transmitted in a store-carry-forward way, which depends on the contact between nodes. To use the contact efficiently, the message is often divided into many bundles, which are very small and can be transmitted successfully in one contact. Such multi-frame spreading algorithm is very important, but state of the art works just assume that the message is very small and has only one bundle. This paper proposes a theoretical framework based on mean field limit to evaluate the epidemic-like multi-frame spreading algorithm for the first time. In addition, the selfish behaviors can have certain impact on the store-carry-forward communication mode, so we extend our model to the case that nodes are selfish. Simulations show the accuracy of our model. Numerical results show that the more bundles the message has, the lower the average delivery ratio will be. In addition, the selfish behaviors can make the performance be worse.