Performance comparison of DTN multicasting routing algorithms-opportunities and challenges

Most of the Network's infrastructure today is established. Reason being, an underlying network backbone exists to support communication over the internet. What if the infrastructure is completely disrupted due to any unforeseen circumstances like natural calamity? In such a situation to get an immediate help is possible only when there lies a mechanism that supports such disrupted communication environment. Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is one such smart environment that may cater to the needs that arise out of such situation. DTN is characterized by low connectivity, small mobile devices that may store information and carry it to a network boundary and further relays it to another mobile device. In such a situation, no communication is rather unacceptable as compared to the delay that may exist for a large interval of time. In view of the above mentioned scenario, many researchers have suggested application of the multicasting routing in DTN. In this paper, researchers have contributed by providing an extensive study on the DTN multicasting routing mechanism proposed in the past. The performance metric and comparative study will form a basis for the derivation of the optimal Multicasting Routing Protocol.