The Performance Analysis of Multi-Hop Relay DTN Communication System in Interplanetary Network

An interplanetary communication suffers from a high latency and transmission errors due to an intermittent connectivity, and requires a high transmission power for message delivery. Delay/Disruption- tolerant network (DTN) has been developed to ensure the reliable message delivery in the challenging Interplanetary Network (IPN). Contact durations and periods due to node mobility in DTN are critical to reduce an end-to-end latency and to optimally utilize resources at each node. In this paper, we should consider a multi-hop relay DTN communication system, which transmits messages from Earth to Moon via Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) satellite and lunar orbiter. To increase the contact durations and periods between LEO satellite and lunar orbiter, a cube satellite is deployed as the relay node between them. We demonstrate that a multi-hop relay DTN communication system with a cube satellite reduces the end-to-end latency for message delivery. In addition, we derive a proper routing scheme and minimum buffer sizes at multi-hop DTN communication system to ensure reliable the message delivery to destination according to cube satellite.