Publications Conference paper · Delay-tolerant networks · 2026

On the Distribution of DTN Reachability Information: A Quantitative Push-vs-Pull Analysis

Juan A. Fraire

IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), Space-Terrestrial Internetworking Workshop (STINT), 2026

Abstract

As space networks scale from isolated point-to-point links to multi-operator, multi-hop infrastructures, nodes must discover how to reach each other's Bundle Protocol endpoints. Today, this Endpoint Identifier (EID) to Convergence-Layer Adapter (CLA) binding is pre-provisioned; it will not scale. Two Internet paradigms offer competing solutions: proactive flooding (à la BGP) that replicates every binding everywhere, and on-demand resolution (à la DNS) that queries an authority when needed. We build OMNeT++ models of both and evaluate them across 13 experiments on synthetic grids (up to 400 nodes, 500 EIDs) and three realistic scenarios (terrestrial disaster response, lunar Artemis, and Mars exploration) covering one-way delays from 5 ms to 12 min. The results reveal a sharp, delay-driven regime map: below ∼100 ms round-trip time, DNS delivers 9–141× lower overhead with sub-200 ms query latency; above ∼3 s, BGP's one-time convergence cost amortizes after a single query, making it the only viable option at Mars distances; and a contested crossover emerges at cislunar delays (∼1–3 s), where a hybrid strategy may be optimal. Under EID churn, BGP maintains 100% accuracy at all rates, while DNS degrades to 33% when the churn interval falls below the cache TTL. These findings give the first quantitative guidelines for choosing, or combining, push and pull EID resolution across the solar system.

Cite

BibTeX

@inproceedings{fraire2026pushpull,
  author    = {Fraire, Juan A.},
  title     = {On the Distribution of {DTN} Reachability Information: A Quantitative Push-vs-Pull Analysis},
  booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), Space-Terrestrial Internetworking Workshop (STINT)},
  year      = {2026}
}

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