A Uniform Continuum Model for Scaling of Ad Hoc Networks

摘要

This paper models an ad-hoc network as a continuum of nodes, ignoring edge effects, to find how the traffic scales with N, the number of nodes. We obtain expressions for the traffic due to application data, packet forwarding, mobility and routing, and we find the effects of the transmission range, R, and the bandwidth. The results indicate that the design of scalable adhoc networks should target small numbers of nodes (not over 1000) and short transmission ranges. The analysis produces three dimensionless parameters that characterize the nodes and the network: a, the walk/talk ratio, or the ratio of the link event rate to the application packet rate; ,Q, the forwarding overhead, or the average number of hops required for a packet to travel from source to destination; and y, the routing overhead. We find that the quantity a -j/)3 characterizes the relative importance of routing traffic and user data traffic. These quantities may be useful to compare the results of various simulation studies.