Energy-Saving mechanisms for delay and Disruption-Tolerant networks

Abstract

In recent years, a lot of studies have been devoted to make communications possible between the nodes in the disconnected network scenarios, such as delay-/disruption-tolerant network (DTN). However, many DTN scenarios rely on mobile devices with restricted energy capacity which would directly affect the lifetime and performance of the network composed by these devices. So we pay attention to the energy-saving mechanisms of DTN in this paper and introduce the architecture, theoretical basis, evaluation metrics, classification, and challenges of the energy-saving mechanism. Next, the main energy-saving mechanisms are compared; the research on the energy management for DTN is summarized and analyzed in this paper, and the open issues for future research are also pointed out to motivate new research and development in the energy management field of DTN.