Analytical Framework for Effect of Link Disruption on Bundle Protocol in Deep-Space Communications

Delay/disruption tolerant networking (DTN) was proposed for reliable data transfer despite frequent link disruptions and long propagation delay that are typical of the deep-space communication environment. DTN communications rely heavily on its core bundle protocol (BP) for reliable data delivery. To date, little work has been seen in theoretical analysis of the performance of BP in deep-space communications. In particular, an analytical understanding of the performance of BP for reliable data delivery in a deep-space communication environment in the presence of link disruptions is quickly needed. In this paper, we present a study of the effect of link disruption on transmission performance of BP, in both analytical and experimental manners, in a deep-space communications system characterized by link disruptions accompanied by an extremely long propagation delay and lossy data links. For the first time, an analytical framework is built to estimate the effect of link disruption on the total bundle delivery time of BP depending on its starting time with respect to bundle delivery. The analytical models are validated by running experiments using a test bed.