Delay-tolerant networks and network coding: Comparative studies on simulated and real-device experiments

Delay-tolerant networking effectively extends the network connectivity in the time domain, and endows communications devices with enhanced data transfer capabilities. Network coding on the other hand enables us to approach the information capacity of networks by allowing intermediate nodes to process data en route. Both of these were major breakthroughs in mobile and wireless communications in the past decade or so. As reported in this article, we are interested in how network coding interacts with such a challenged networking paradigm as DTN from an experimental perspective. We conducted tests with both real smart mobile devices and computer simulation and found conditions where their results match. This would give us confidence of using computer simulation to study larger delay-tolerant networks with and without network coding at a much manageable cost.