Impact of Using Multi-Packet Reception on Performance in Delay Tolerant Networks

Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is a kind of networks that have no fixed path between nodes due to lack of continuous network connectivity. To achieve successful communication and to improve performance in DTN is always a challenge work. Most existing works are based on designing high efficient routing protocols and have not emphasized the MAC layer as well as new technologies available in the Physical layer which may influence the performance for whole networks. In this paper, we consider utilization of Multi-packet Reception (MPR) capability in DTN in order to provide better performance. We introduce our own MPR scheduling scheme, Group Based Scheme (GBS), and compare the performance of DTN with different MPR capabilities. Our works have been evaluated by the simulation using a real vehicular network trace composed of the GPS data of more than 4,000 taxis in Shanghai urban area. The results have demonstrated various impacts of using Multi-Packet Reception (MPR) on performance in DTN. By using MPR in DTN, it outperforms the network without MPR especially when the wireless transmission range increases.