Standard tactical services in a military disruption-tolerant network: Field tests

Standard applications are unable to perform well in delay- and disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs) due to frequent lack of end-to-end connectivity and long communication delays. Such applications must be thus adapted to be able to operate in disadvantageous network conditions. In a previous work on adapting standard tactical applications for DTN networks, we proposed how such an adaptation may be achieved in a transparent way. In this paper, we present results from field tests in a radio-based military DTN, deployed in a mountainous area of Greding (Germany). We discuss conclusions and lessons learned from the test: What we succeeded to achieve and what could be improved to make the tests more complete and valuable.