DTN Gateway Architecture for Partially Disconnected Telemetry Environments

Abstract

Telemetry networks often operate in challenged wireless environments, resulting in periods of disconnection. Our delay tolerant networking (DTN) gateway dynamically detects disruptions in connectivity and buffers telemetry data until connectivity is reestablished. When the connection is resumed, all buffered data is transmitted automatically in order to backfill any gaps in the telemetry stream. A DTN gateway may operate as a standalone device with multiple DTN client applications, or as a network of mobile DTN gateways which will perform multi-hop ad-hoc routing to deliver telemetry data across the telemetry network system (TmNS). Our DTN gateway also provides conventional IP routing and forwarding capabilities, including support for standard dynamic routing protocols, eliminating the need for a stand-alone IP router on the test article (TA). This paper presents the system architecture of our DTN gateway, along with several deployment scenarios for telemetry environments.