A New Phase Transition for Local Delays in MANETs

We consider Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) with transmitters located according to a Poisson point in the Euclidean plane, slotted Aloha Medium Access (MAC) protocol and the so-called outage scenario, where a successful transmission requires a Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise (SINR) larger than some threshold. We analyze the local delays in such a network, namely the number of times slots required for nodes to transmit a packet to their prescribed next-hop receivers. The analysis depends very much on the receiver scenario and on the variability of the fading. In most cases, each node has finite-mean geometric random delay and thus a positive next hop throughput. However, the spatial (or large population) averaging of these individual finite mean-delays leads to infinite values in several practical cases, including the Rayleigh fading and positive thermal noise case. In some cases it exhibits an interesting phase transition phenomenon where the spatial average is finite when certain model parameters are below a threshold and infinite above. We call this phenomenon, contention phase transition. We argue that the spatial average of the mean local delays is infinite primarily because of the outage logic, where one transmits full packets at time slots when the receiver is covered at the required SINR and where one wastes all the other time slots. This results in the "RESTART" mechanism, which in turn explains why we have infinite spatial average. Adaptive coding offers a nice way of breaking the outage/RESTART logic. We show examples where the average delays are finite in the adaptive coding case, whereas they are infinite in the outage case.Comment: accepted for IEEE Infocom 201

Quantifying Link Stability in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks Subject to Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Mobility

The performance of mobile ad hoc networks in general and that of the routing algorithm, in particular, can be heavily affected by the intrinsic dynamic nature of the underlying topology. In this paper, we build a new analytical/numerical framework that characterizes nodes' mobility and the evolution of links between them. This formulation is based on a stationary Markov chain representation of link connectivity. The existence of a link between two nodes depends on their distance, which is governed by the mobility model. In our analysis, nodes move randomly according to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process using one tuning parameter to obtain different levels of randomness in the mobility pattern. Finally, we propose an entropy-rate-based metric that quantifies link uncertainty and evaluates its stability. Numerical results show that the proposed approach can accurately reflect the random mobility in the network and fully captures the link dynamics. It may thus be considered a valuable performance metric for the evaluation of the link stability and connectivity in these networks.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to IEEE International Conference on Communications 201

Opportunistic Information Dissemination in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks: adaptiveness vs. obliviousness and randomization vs. determinism

In this paper the problem of information dissemination in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) is studied. The problem is to disseminate a piece of information, initially held by a distinguished source node, to all nodes in a set defined by some predicate. We use a model of MANETs that is well suited for dynamic networks and opportunistic communication. In this model nodes are placed in a plane, in which they can move with bounded speed, and communication between nodes occurs over a collision-prone single channel. In this setup informed and uninformed nodes can be disconnected for some time (bounded by a parameter alpha), but eventually some uninformed node must become neighbor of an informed node and remain so for some time (bounded by a parameter beta). In addition, nodes can start at different times, and they can crash and recover. Under the above framework, we show negative and positive results for different types of randomized protocols, and we put those results in perspective with respect to previous deterministic results

Stochastic Analysis of Non-slotted Aloha in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

In this paper we propose two analytically tractable stochastic models of non-slotted Aloha for Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs): one model assumes a static pattern of nodes while the other assumes that the pattern of nodes varies over time. Both models feature transmitters randomly located in the Euclidean plane, according to a Poisson point process with the receivers randomly located at a fixed distance from the emitters. We concentrate on the so-called outage scenario, where a successful transmission requires a Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR) larger than a given threshold. With Rayleigh fading and the SINR averaged over the duration of the packet transmission, both models lead to closed form expressions for the probability of successful transmission. We show an excellent matching of these results with simulations. Using our models we compare the performances of non-slotted Aloha to previously studied slotted Aloha. We observe that when the path loss is not very strong both models, when appropriately optimized, exhibit similar performance. For stronger path loss non-slotted Aloha performs worse than slotted Aloha, however when the path loss exponent is equal to 4 its density of successfully received packets is still 75% of that in the slotted scheme. This is still much more than the 50% predicted by the well-known analysis where simultaneous transmissions are never successful. Moreover, in any path loss scenario, both schemes exhibit the same energy efficiency.Comment: accepted for IEEE Infocom 201

Stability Oriented Routing in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks Based on Simple Automatons

International audienceSince wireless ad-hoc networks with mobile nodes have not stable topology, the classical network functions as the routing are difficult to realize. The router nodes and the links between them are not stable and can appear and disappear randomly. So, classic routing algorithms can not be used successfully. New approaches should be used which deals with these dynamic changes. To avoid frequent route requests and volatile routes due to uncertain information, the objective of the routing can correspond to the route stability. The route computation can be based on random variables and becomes probabilistic routing. Our book chapter focuses on modeling the resilience of these information for ad hoc networks where topology information is uncertain. Our model is based on a dynamic graph where the existence of the nodes and the communication capability between them are modeled by simple two state automaton where the transitions are initiated by random events

Airborne Directional Networking: Topology Control Protocol Design

This research identifies and evaluates the impact of several architectural design choices in relation to airborne networking in contested environments related to autonomous topology control. Using simulation, we evaluate topology reconfiguration effectiveness using classical performance metrics for different point-to-point communication architectures. Our attention is focused on the design choices which have the greatest impact on reliability, scalability, and performance. In this work, we discuss the impact of several practical considerations of airborne networking in contested environments related to autonomous topology control modeling. Using simulation, we derive multiple classical performance metrics to evaluate topology reconfiguration effectiveness for different point-to-point communication architecture attributes for the purpose of qualifying protocol design elements

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed