Mobility Metrics for Routing in MANETs

Abstract

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile nodes forming a temporary network without the need for base stations or any other preexisting network infrastructure. In a peer-to-peer fashion, mobile nodes can communicate with each other by using wireless multihop communication. Due to its low cost, high flexibility, fast network establishment and self-reconfiguration, ad hoc networking has received much interest during the last ten years. However, without a fixed infrastructure, frequent path changes cause significant numbers of routing packets to discover new paths, leading to increased network congestion and transmission latency over fixed networks. Many on-demand routing protocols have been developed by using various routing mobility metrics to choose the most reliable routes, while dealing with the primary obstacle caused by node mobility. In the first part, we have developed an analysis framework for mobility metrics in random mobility model. Unlike previous research, where the mobility metrics were mostly studied by simulations, we derive the analytical expressions of mobility metrics, including link persistence, link duration, link availability, link residual time, link change rate and their path equivalents. We also show relationships between the different metrics, where they exist. Such exact expressions constitute precise mathematical relationships between network connectivity and node mobility. We further validate our analysis framework in Random Walk Mobility model (RWMM). Regarding constant or random variable node velocity, we construct the transition matrix of Markov Chain Model through the analysis of the PDF of node separation after one epoch. In addition, we present intuitive and simple expressions for the link residual time and link duration, for the RWMM, which relate them directly to the ratio between transmission range and node speed. We also illustrate the relationship between link change rate and link duration. Finally, simulation results for all mentioned mobility metrics are reported which match well the proposed analytical framework. In the second part, we investigate the mobility metric applications on caching strategies and hierarchy routing algorithm. When on-demand routing employed, stale route cache information and frequent new-route discovery in processes in MANETs generate considerable routing delay and overhead. This thesis proposes