A Border Gateway Protocol Extension for Distributing Endpoint Identifier Reachability Information in Delay-tolerant Networks

Abstract: The Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) community has created solid results during the last three decades. One aspect that still requires focus, however, is the simplification of configuring systems participating in DTN communication. In this workshop paper, an approach is proposed for configuring DTN endpoint reachability. The core idea is to extend the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), enabling it to advertise the reachability of DTN endpoints specified by Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs) via specific next-hop Convergence Layer Adapters (CLAs). The approach is mainly intended for usage in edge nodes accessible from an IP network, which communicate via a DTN gateway to a larger DTN infrastructure. It may be applied to simplify access to the Solar System Internet from hosts connected to the Internet. The feasibility of the approach has been confirmed using an implementation intended for validation purposes.