Network Routing Control Algorithm Combining Waiting and Rerouting of Packets in Challenged Communication Environment

The miniaturization, cost reduction, and power saving of various sensors have advanced exponentially, and the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology for collecting information from them has also advanced. Though there are various areas where WSN is used, it is also expected to be utilized in environmental monitoring and agriculture. However, such environments can generally only perform slow or unstable communication or intermittent communication due to the influence of topography and obstacles, that is, they are often challenged communication environments. DTN (Delay-, Disruption-, Disconnection-, Tolerant Networking) has been researched and developed to achieve the required performance in such environments. This paper deals with a method for dynamically determining the waiting time to decide whether to reroute packets to another link when a link is disconnected. The general protocol upon link disconnection is to merely wait in the buffer and discard the packet if it overflows; however, utilizing an alternate link for detour becomes an option. In scenarios such as environmental monitoring, obtaining data, albeit delayed, often outweighs discarding it. Hence, such a control method is deemed effective. In this paper, we design such a control algorithm and investigate the conditions where the algorithm is effective by simulation.