Custodial Multicast in Delay Tolerant Networks

Abstract

Although custodial transmission of multicast bundles would be a desirable capability to have in Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs), support for custodial multicast transmission was omitted from the Bundle Protocol Specification because of its complexity. This paper explains the difficulties that arise with respect to supporting custody transfer and retransmission of multicast bundles, and it describes some potential solutions for addressing these issues that the authors are currently exploring as work-in-progress.