Delay-Tolerant Mobile Sensor Networks: Routing Challenges and Solutions

Abstract

Delay-tolerant Mobile Sensor Networks (DTMSNs), which have features of both Delay-tolerant Networks (DTNs) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), need to be considered as a different network type due to the unique characteristics. DTMSNs have been getting popular due to the increasing number of applications. As a result, several routing algorithms for the communication between the nodes have been developed recently. In this chapter, we discuss the challenges for routing in the DTMSN environment and present a survey of existing routing algorithms in the literature. We categorize the DTMSNs as terrestrial, underwater, and flying DTMSNs and go through the challenges and routing solutions in each of these subcategories. We not only examine the routing algorithms specifically designed for DTMSNs but also examine the routing algorithms designed for DTNs and WSNs from the perspective of DTMSNs. Moreover, we discuss the evaluation metrics used for the performance analysis of developed routing algorithms.