A novel communication mode selection technique for DTN over MANET architecture

In this paper, we focus on the terminal-to-terminal communication technology, which enables communication without requiring any fixed infrastructure. The typical networks that fit this paradigm are Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) and Delay and Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN). In these networks, the users can transmit messages by relaying the messages through other mobile terminals such as smartphone, laptop, or tablet PC. Since transmission methods of MANET and DTN are different, their performances depend on communication environment such as their mobility and overall terminal density. MANET is suitable for the environment where the terminals are static and are in dense area, but DTN is more suitable for the environment where user terminals have high mobility and are mostly isolated. Therefore, we propose a method, which switches the terminal´s communication mode between MANET and DTN, to take advantage of different network characteristic and avoid wasting of network resource. Additionally, we implemented this algorithm in actual smartphones. Through the experiment using these smartphones, we have confirmed that the algorithm functions correctly.