RDTN: An agile DTN research Platform and bundle protocol agent

Abstract

This paper describes a new approach to developing and evaluating protocols and applications for Delay-Tolerant-Networking based on RDTN, a DTN bundle protocol agent (BPA) implementation written in Ruby. RDTN is light-weight and flexible so that it can be used in DTN application and protocol development as well as in research of DTN-related topics such as routing or convergence layers. RDTN provides a programming language-independent interface for client applications, an interactive environment for tests and a simulation mode for running multiple instances of the RDTN code in a simulated network environment. This paper describes the design of RDTN and its application to agile DTN protocol development. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.