Design and Features of Unibo-BP, the Unibo Implementation of the DTN Bundle Protocol

Challenged networks, including space networks, require the Delay-/ Disruption-Tolerant Networking architecture (DTN), which is based on the introduction of a new layer and a new associate protocol, the Bundle Protocol (BP). The recent release of RFC 9171, which standardizes version 7 (BPv7), has led the University of Bologna to develop its own implementation, Unibo-BP. The aim of this paper is to provide the reader with a comprehensive description of its design principles and innovative features. Unibo-BP is written in C+, is fully compliant with RFC 9171, is research-driven, and space-oriented, thus matching the main research interests of the authors. Unibo-BP is not a stand-alone application, but the core of a wide ecosystem that includes DTNsuite applications, LTP and TCPCLv3 convergence layers, and CGR/SABR routing. Unibo-BP interfaces to these additional components are thoroughly analyzed in the paper, as they present a number of advanced features. Unibo-BP supports one or multiple nodes on the same machine and a few template scripts to facilitate the user are described here. The paper also provides a section devoted to interoperability tests and first research applications An appendix, with an overview of Unibo-BP commands, completes this work. Unibo-BP is released as Open Source Software under GPLv3 license.