Performance limits of real delay tolerant networks

We consider a generic Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) and we focus our investigation on assessing its performance limits. Our contribution is twofold. First, we propose a framework to evaluate the optimal performance in terms of minimum delay, maximum throughput and minimum number of hops, in the case of multi-hop transmissions. We consider both single and multi traffic flows scenarios. Second, we apply our framework to the case of a real DTN, that exploit the mobility of a public transportation system. We think that our contributions, even if based on some simplified assumptions, allows the network designer to evaluate the feasibility of supporting some applications, given their QoS requirements in terms of delay and throughput.