Design and Implementation of a Delay-Tolerant Network Emulator Based in QualNet Simulator

Delay tolerant network (DTN) is a network which implies asynchronous communication and does not require an end-to-end path at any point in time. Its main characteristic is the links between nodes are volatile and may break down for a long time at any time, so it can't be assumed that a path exists between the source node and the destination node. The current studies on DTN mainly use theoretical analysis, simulation and tesbed, so employing the emulation in DTN is a new topic and has great significance. The benefits of emulation include the explanation of the experimental scale and the ability to expose experimental algorithms and protocols to live traffic loads. In addition, through the emulation, we can give a controlled, repeatable environment. In this paper we propose a design and implementation technology of the emulation of DTN protocol in the QualNet simulator. Preliminary emulation results show that emulation is capable of assisting the study.