Supporting effective and efficient data delivery in delay tolerant networks (DTNs) is a challenging problem due to the nature of the network. In this paper, we propose to use network coding technique based on Growth Code to improve the performance of data delivery in DTNs. We incorporate Growth Codes into Epidemic Routing and First Contact routing in DTNs to provide two network coding based routing algorithms, namely Growth Code based Epidemic Routing scheme and Growth Code based First Contact routing scheme, aiming to achieve high delivery rate, low delivery delay and low average energy consumption in DTNs with constrained buffer resources and low computation capability. We validate the effectiveness and advantages of our proposed algorithms by simulation experiments based on the Opportunistic Network Environment simulator. Numerical results show that Growth Code based Epidemic Routing scheme can achieve a good tradeoff performance among delivery rate, delivery delay and average energy consumption. When the buffer resources at DTN nodes are constrained, the benefits of Growth Code based Epidemic Routing scheme is more significant. On the other hand, when the resource constraint is loose, Growth Code based First Contact routing scheme can achieve better data delivery performance.
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