The REDMARS2 project (REcursive Disruption-tolerant Mobility-enhanced networking ARchitecture Study 2) was an initiative started by D3TN and supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, running from March 2021 to November 2022.
REDMARS2 explored robust data exchange for environments with long delays and intermittent connectivity — such as space, satellite, or mobile ad-hoc networks. The project investigated how the Recursive Internetwork Architecture (RINA) and Delay-/ Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) can enable resilient communication across heterogeneous links.
Over the years, the Internet’s TCP/IP architecture has required continual extensions and adaptations to address the demands of modern, mobile, and intermittently connected networks. The Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) was designed as a cleaner and more flexible alternative, but it has not reached practical deployment so far, as replacing the existing Internet stack is not feasible in practice.
REDMARS2 set out to explore whether RINA’s principles could still be leveraged — specifically in challenged environments where no complete architecture stack is yet established, such as deep-space, aerial, or underwater communication systems.
In REDMARS2, we transferred the recursive protocol structure of RINA into the domain of DTNs. By leveraging Bundle-in-Bundle Encapsulation (BIBE), we created a highly scalable networking concept in which routing information remains local to its scope, allowing efficient communication even across heterogeneous and intermittently connected systems.
In theory, such a recursive DTN design could even enable networks spanning the entire galaxy, while remaining efficient and manageable — demonstrating that a holistic and scalable communication architecture for challenged networks is within reach.
To validate our recursive DTN approach, we conducted a field test combining terrestrial and space communication links using ESA’s OPS-SAT satellite. The scenario simulated the transmission of coordinates from Earth to a drone on Mars, where the drone captured an image and sent it back to Earth. The experimental setup is illustrated in the following graphic.
We divided the network into distinct scopes — shown in different colors in the diagram below — and applied BIBE to prevent routing information from leaking between them. This method can significantly conserve bandwidth and resources in terms of routing, enabling a highly scalable and efficient communication architecture.
Watch the project video to see how our recursive DTN approach looks like in more detail:
Read the publication “Selected Results from the REDMARS2 Project” for a compact overview of our evaluation and findings.
