Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN)

The Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) program will develop and demonstrate technology that will provide network services when no end-to-end path exists through the network, and additional network behavior and functionality required as DoD transitions from conventional networks to more dynamic, self-forming, peer to peer architectures, such as Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETS). This program builds on work previously performed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Delay Tolerant Networking Research program (http://www.dtnrg.org). The DARPA DTN program's goal is to provide delay tolerance by organizing information flow into bundles. These bundles are to be routed through an "intelligent" network that can manage the delivery of the bundles to the maximal extent permitted by the available topology. This method will allow messages to pass through the network with successive responsibilities, rather than the traditional end-to-end scheme.