Data Ferry Flocking for Bulk Information Transfer Under Ferry Buffer Constraints
Bradley Fraser · 2018
This paper considers the use of multiple ferries moving in a communications-connected formation, for the transfer of data around a disconnected network in a delay-tolerant fashion. A formation is generated by the flocking emergent behaviour which, when considered as a single node, has a larger collective buffer size and coverage footprint than an individual. It is shown through extensive analysis and simulation that ferrying data in this fashion yields shorter data latency under certain buffer size and geographic conditions than in current approaches where ferries act individually.