Data Exchange in Delay Tolerant Networks using Joint Inter- and Intra-Flow Network Coding

Data transmission in delay tolerant networks (DTNs) is a challenging problem due to the lack of continuous network connectivity and nondeterministic mobility of the nodes. Epidemic routing and spray-and-wait methods are two popular mechanisms that are proposed for DTNs. In order to reduce the transmission delay in DTNs, some previous works combine intra-flow network coding with the routing protocols. In this paper, we propose two routing mechanisms using systematic joint inter- and intra-flow network coding for the purpose of data exchange between the nodes. We discuss the reasons why inter-flow network coding helps to reduce the delivery delay of the packets, and we also analyze the delays related with only using intra-flow coding, and joint inter-and intra-flow coding methods. We empirically show the benefit of joint coding over just intra-flow coding. Based on our simulation, joint coding can reduce the delay up to 40%, compared to only intra-flow coding.