Measuring the Effects of Mobility on Reactive Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

Reference:

Mikko Särelä. Measuring the effects of mobility on reactive ad hoc routing protocols. Research Report A91, Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory for Theoretical Computer Science, Espoo, Finland, May 2004.

Abstract:

Ad hoc networks can operate without fixed infrastructure and can survive rapid changes in the network topology. They can be studied formally as graphs in which the set of edges varies in time.

The main method for testing ad hoc networks is simulation. Choosing mobility model that describes the movements of the nodes in statistical terms is one of the most important choices of simulation parameters. This is because the location of nodes determines whether any pair of nodes has a direct communication link and the location of each node is determined by movement.

These links are used for creating routes between nodes that are not adjacent. When a link that is part of a route goes down, the route has to be rebuilt, which causes delays, packet loss and routing protocol overhead in the network. This report proposes that the route life time can be used as an indicator of the effects of mobility for reactive ad hoc routing. A method for estimating the route life time distribution for shortest routes between random nodes is also proposed.

The simulations do not correspond with the predictions of the model. This means that the model is lacking some critical aspect. Further research is required to understand the factors that affect reactive ad hoc routing protocol performance.

Keywords:

ad hoc network, routing, mobility management, mobility model, simulation

Suggested BibTeX entry:

@techreport{HUT-TCS-A91,
    address = {Espoo, Finland},
    author = {Mikko S{\"a}rel{\"a}},
    institution = {Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory for Theoretical Computer Science},
    month = {May},
    number = {A91},
    pages = {61},
    title = {Measuring the Effects of Mobility on Reactive Ad Hoc Routing Protocols},
    type = {Research Report},
    year = {2004},
}