Modeling Terrain Impact on Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) Connectivity

Authors:
  • LJLance Joneckis
    Lance Joneckis
  • CKCorinne Kramer
    Corinne Kramer
  • DSDavid Sparrow
    David Sparrow
Open Access
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Abstract
Terrain affects connectivity in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). Both average pairwise link closure and the rate at which the link-state changes when nodes move depend on the characteristics of the intervening terrain. However, these key parameters depend only mildly on internode distances in common real-world terrains, which suggests that network performance in real terrains can be usefully modeled using simple time- and location-invariant average link-state probability and rate of change. We use this fact to predict the number of disconnected subnets at a random instant in a given terrain, and we compare these predictions against Monte Carlo sampling of node positions.