{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:42:20Z","timestamp":1787028140652,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,17]],"date-time":"2022-08-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1660694400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper, we study the potential of using the metric of Age of Information (AoI) for enhancing delay-tolerant routing protocols. The latter have been proposed for alleviating the impact of long roundtrip time in networks operating in harsh environments, e.g., in distributed applications deployed in a desert\/sparsely populated area without infrastructure, a space network, etc. Delay-tolerant routing protocols can prevent excessive packet timer expiration, but do not provide any packet delivery time guarantee. Thus, they are unsuitable for time-sensitive applications that are more intensely desired nowadays in the next generation networking applications. By incorporating AoI into the operation of delay-tolerant routing protocols, we aim at devising routing protocols that can cope with both long propagation times and challenges related to time-sensitivity in packet delivery. More specifically, in this work, we modify the operation of a well-known delay-tolerant routing protocol, namely FRESH, to make AoI-based packet forwarding decisions, aiming at achieving specific delay guarantees regarding the end-to-end delivery time. We investigate the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach compared to the traditional FRESH protocol. This work serves as a cornerstone for successfully demonstrating the potential of exploiting AoI in delay-tolerant routing and its applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi14080242","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,17]],"date-time":"2022-08-17T21:23:56Z","timestamp":1660771436000},"page":"242","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["On the Potential of Enhancing Delay-Tolerant Routing Protocols via Age of Information"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2984-8369","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Georgios","family":"Kallitsis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2841-9925","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vasileios","family":"Karyotis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Informatics, Ionian University, Tsirigoti Sq. 7, 49100 Corfu, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9459-318X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Symeon","family":"Papavassiliou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"551","DOI":"10.1007\/s11277-020-08032-4","article-title":"Routing Protocols in Delay Tolerant Networks: Comparative and Empirical Analysis","volume":"118","author":"Verma","year":"2021","journal-title":"Wirel. 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