As a representative of a complex technological system, so-called wireless
multihop ad hoc communication networks are discussed. They represent an
infrastructure-less generalization of todays wireless cellular phone networks.
Lacking a central control authority, the ad hoc nodes have to coordinate
themselves such that the overall network performs in an optimal way. A
performance indicator is the end-to-end throughput capacity.
Various models, generating differing ad hoc network structure via differing
transmission power assignments, are constructed and characterized. They serve
as input for a generic data traffic simulation as well as some semi-analytic
estimations. The latter reveal that due to the most-critical-node effect the
end-to-end throughput capacity sensitively depends on the underlying network
structure, resulting in differing scaling laws with respect to network size.Comment: 30 pages, to be published in Physica