Mélange: Supporting heterogeneous QoS requirements in delay tolerant sensor networks

In sparse mobile sensor networks, nodes have a small number of neighbors with intermittent connectivity. This paper presents a new networking protocol for this type of network, aimed at maximizing system performance in terms of both delay and reliability. The system is motivated by the observation that many applications on this type of network have two kinds of co-existing data packets: those with real-time constraints and those with reliability constraints. By treating these packets differently, we are able to better meet the needs of both. We show that our approach outperforms ordinary epidemic routing when packets with different types of QoS requirements exist in the network.