Aggregation of DTN Bundles for Space Internetworking Systems

Delay/disruption tolerant networking (DTN) is considered one of the most suitable technologies for implementing a space system of systems (SoS) internetworking architecture. Aggregation of multiple DTN bundles within a data transport block, which was proposed to resist space channel asymmetry, has been a controversy for years. In this paper, an experimental investigation of whether or not the aggregation of multiple DTN bundles within a single data transport block has performance advantage is presented. The investigation focuses on a space SoS internetworking scenario characterized by an asymmetric data rate. A model is developed for the minimum number of data bundles that should be aggregated within a Licklider transmission protocol block to avoid delay of acknowledgment transmission caused by channel asymmetry in the space SoS internetworking system.