A Realistic Underlay Concept for Delay Tolerant Networks in Disaster Scenarios

During disaster relief missions, it is essential to provide reliable communication between the different rescue teams and to the victims as well. Since a disaster is likely to affect the communication infrastructure, fast deployable Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are the best choice to reestablish communication. However, this type of networks has a major drawback; it can only cover relatively small areas. In large disaster sites, this results in creating frequent partitions of the network as rescue teams spread over the area. In order to handle these disruptions, delay tolerant networks could be used by employing mobile nodes as data ferries between different partitions. These ferries provide the same functionality as border nodes interconnecting different MANETs. In this paper, we present our concept of delay tolerant border nodes and a realistic mechanism to resolve names in such disaster scenarios. This approach enables robust communication throughout the disaster area while supporting heterogeneous technologies and different organizational policies.