Capacity of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

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Capacity of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

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by Jinyang Li , Charles Blake , Douglas S. J. De Couto , Hu Imm Lee , Robert Morris

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634 - 14 self

BibTeX

@MISC{Li_capacityof,
    author = {Jinyang Li and Charles Blake and Douglas S. J. De Couto and Hu Imm Lee and Robert Morris},
    title = { Capacity of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks},
    year = {}
}

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Abstract

Early simulation experience with wireless ad hoc networks suggests that their capacity can be surprisingly low, due to the requirement that nodes forward each others’ packets. The achievable capacity depends on network size, traffic patterns, and detailed local radio interactions. This paper examines these factors alone and in combination, using simulation and analysis from first principles. Our results include both specific constants and general scaling relationships helpful in understanding the limitations of wireless ad hoc networks. We examine interactions of the 802.11 MAC and ad hoc forwarding and the effect on capacity for several simple configurations and traffic patterns. While 802.11 discovers reasonably good schedules, we nonetheless observe capacities markedly less than optimal for very simple chain and lattice networks with very regular traffic patterns. We validate some simulation results with experiments. We also show that the traffic pattern determines whether an ad hoc network’s per node capacity will scale to large networks. In particular, we show that for total capacity to scale up with network size the average distance between source and destination nodes must remain small as the network grows. Non-local traffic patterns in which this average distance grows with the network size result in a rapid decrease of per node capacity. Thus the question “Are large ad hoc networks feasible?” reduces to a question about the likely locality of communication in such networks.

Keyphrases

ad hoc wireless network traffic pattern network size average distance node capacity wireless ad hoc network large network likely locality total capacity network grows destination node local radio interaction question large ad hoc network first principle good schedule ad hoc network ad hoc forwarding simple chain others packet several simple configuration regular traffic pattern simulation result lattice network rapid decrease early simulation experience non-local traffic pattern network size result specific constant achievable capacity

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