A framework for evaluating DTN mobility models

The field of delay tolerant networking is rich with protocols that exploit node mobility to overcome unpredictable or otherwise bad connectivity. The performance of many of these protocols is highly sensitive to the underlying mobility model which determines the nodes’ movements, and the characteristics of these mobility models are not often studied or compared. With few exceptions, authors test their ideas using mobility models implemented on simulators written for the specific purpose of testing their protocols. We argue that it is better to unify these simulations to one highly capable simulator. We develop a suite of mobility models in OMNeT++ that specifically target delay tolerant networks. We also present a series of metrics that can be used to reason about mobility models independent of which communication protocols and data traffic patterns are in use. These metrics can be used to compare existing mobility models with future ones and also to provide insight into which characteristics of the mobility models affect which aspects of protocol performance. We implement a tool that derives these metrics from OMNeT++ simulations and implement several popular delay tolerant mobility models. Finally, we present the results of our analysis.