--- title: Tolerating Delay With DTN | daily.dev description: Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a protocol designed for unreliable networks with extreme latency, like deep space communications where round-trip times can... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/tolerating-delay-with-dtn-xuicwfwnh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Tolerating Delay With DTN | daily.dev og:description: Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a protocol designed for unreliable networks with extreme latency, like deep space communications where round-trip times can... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/tolerating-delay-with-dtn-xuicwfwnh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/XuiCWfWNh.png og:image:alt: Tolerating Delay With DTN og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Tolerating Delay With DTN **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a protocol designed for unreliable networks with extreme latency, like deep space communications where round-trip times can range from seconds (Moon) to days (Voyager 1). Unlike TCP which assumes lost packets mean congestion, DTN uses a store-and-forward mesh architecture with "bundles" that nodes can hold for hours or days. NASA's ION implementation and community projects like DTN7 are available for use. While developed for space missions, DTN is valuable for any scenario with intermittent connectivity: disaster recovery, low-power tracking, or weak signal environments. The approach echoes older systems like UUCP and Fidonet, adapting proven store-and-forward techniques for modern unreliable networks. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Improving NAT traversal, pt. 3: looking ahead](https://daily.dev/posts/improving-nat-traversal-pt-3-looking-ahead-sd7jm9lvd) · Tailscale · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How TCP Turns Round Trip Time and Jitter into Packet Loss](https://daily.dev/posts/how-tcp-turns-round-trip-time-and-jitter-into-packet-loss-rrgmmnhqq) · freeCodeCamp · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#nasa](https://daily.dev/tags/nasa), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/tolerating-delay-with-dtn-xuicwfwnh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Tolerating Delay With DTN","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tolerating-delay-with-dtn-xuicwfwnh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/tolerating-delay-with-dtn-xuicwfwnh"},"datePublished":"2026-01-19T15:31:01.538Z","dateModified":"2026-03-15T05:20:44.752Z","description":"Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a protocol designed for unreliable networks with extreme latency, like deep space communications where round-trip times can...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/995c2f3b3a7a4e731bc8612ed201fb60?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/995c2f3b3a7a4e731bc8612ed201fb60?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/tolerating-delay-with-dtn-xuicwfwnh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"nasa,networking","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Tolerating Delay With DTN"}]} ```