Abstract: The tie down device 10a has a body 12 with a longitudinal axis 14, a hitching part 16 and a locking part 18. The hitching part 16 includes an internal slot 20 which is formed in the body 12 and a hitch member 22. When the tie down 10a is in use a portion of a tether 24 which has been pushed through the internal slot 20 can be looped about the hitching member 22 to couple or hitch the tether to the body 12. The locking part 18 has a cam surface 26 over which the tether 24 slides when pulled, and a gripping mechanism 28 that grips a portion of the tether 24 downline of the cam surface 26. The internal slot 20, cam surface 26, and the gripping mechanism 28 are all located along the longitudinal axis 14 of the body. The tie down device 10a can be attached at any point along the tether 20.

Abstract: A hybrid routing protocol may be provided. A disruption tolerant mechanism may be provided for analyzing a network, detecting a disruption between nodes of the network, and activating a disruption tolerance mechanism in response to the network disruption. The disruption tolerance mechanism may comprise designating a non-disrupted network node as a cache node and routing traffic addressed to the disrupted node to the cache node for storage. Once the disrupted network node recovers from the disruption, the cache node may deliver the stored traffic to the disrupted network node.

Abstract: A hybrid routing protocol may be provided. A disruption tolerant mechanism may be provided for analyzing a network, detecting a disruption between nodes of the network, and activating a disruption tolerance mechanism in response to the network disruption. The disruption tolerance mechanism may comprise designating a non-disrupted network node as a cache node and routing traffic addressed to the disrupted node to the cache node for storage. Once the disrupted network node recovers from the disruption, the cache node may deliver the stored traffic to the disrupted network node.