Analysis of the Failure Tolerance of Linear Access Networks

In this paper, we study the disconnection of a moving vehicle from a linear access network composed by cheap WiFi Access Points in the context of the telecommuting in massive transportation systems. In concrete, we analyze the probability for a user to experience a disconnection longer than a threshold t∗, leading to a disruption of all on-going communications between the vehicle and the infrastructure network. We provide an approximation formula to estimate this probability for large networks. We then carry out a sensitivity analysis and supply a guide for operators when choosing the parameters of the networks. We focus on two scenarios: an intercity bus and an intercity train. Last, we show that such systems are viable, as they attain a very low probability of long disconnections with a very low maintenance cost