Modeling message diffusion in epidemical DTN

A Delay and Disruption-Tolerant Network (DTN) is a fault-tolerant network where end-to-end connections are not required for message transmissions between nodes. Usually, a DTN is implemented as a wireless mobile ad hoc network that can be applied, for instance, to rapidly build a basic telecommunication infrastructure in case of catastrophes and disasters, or to support communication in a disruptive military environment. It is important to model DTN behavior to better understand system dynamics and related physical laws, which may impact network performance. An accurate model will be useful to support the design of the network in such challenging scenarios and may allow to test design ideas before actually building the real system. This work proposes a mathematical model for message diffusion in epidemical DTN. Our approach is based on previous models for the spread of human epidemical diseases, namely SIR. Simulation results on message diffusion times in an epidemical DTN show that the model is accurate regarding expected values, however large deviations above and below average are also observed on diffusion times. We further study such deviations and provide insights on how to reduce and deal with them, making the model useful for DTN applications.