How to Enable Delay Tolerant Network Solutions for Internet of Things: From Taxonomy to Open Challenges

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) is witnessing an increasing range of application domains (industry 4.0, eHealth, smart city, etc.). Meanwhile, IoT is still facing communication challenges because of limited capabilities in computing, storage and energy constraints of smart objects. The use of Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) as basis for communication in IoT is promising but needs more development. In this paper, we present a literature review and a classification of DTN routing protocols. Furthermore, we survey a number of DTN solutions for IoT and propose a new taxonomy to motivate the importance of enabling DTN for IoT applications. The novelty of this classification is the focus on X-DTN category, which combines Delay Tolerant schemes with new technologies (eg, Fog Computing). We also point out some open issues for potential Delay Tolerant IoT schemes.