No abstract

An achievable bit rate per source-destination pair in a wireless network of n randomly located nodes is determined adopting the scaling limit approach of statistical physics. It is shown that randomly scattered nodes can achieve, with high probability, the same 1= p n transmission rate of arbitrarily located nodes. This contrasts with previous results suggesting that a 1= p n log n reduced rate is the price to pay for the randomness due to the location of the nodes. The network operation strategy to achieve the result corresponds to the transition region between order and disorder of an underlying percolation model. If nodes are allowed to transmit over large distances, then paths of connected nodes that cross the entire network area can be easily found, but these generate excessive interference. If nodes transmit over short distances, then such crossing paths do not exist. Percolation theory ensures that crossing paths form in the transition region between these two extreme scenarios. Nodes along these paths are used as a backbone, relaying data for other nodes, and can transport the total amount of information generated by all the sources. A lower bound on the achievable bit rate is then obtained

Previous work on the coverage of mobile sensor networks focuses on algorithms to reposition sensors in order to achieve a static configuration with an enlarged covered area. In this paper, we study the dynamic aspects of the coverage of a mobile sensor network that depend on the process of sensor movement. As time goes by, a position is more likely to be covered; targets that might never be detected in a stationary sensor network can now be detected by moving sensors. We characterize the area coverage at specific time instants and during time intervals, as well as the time it takes to detect a randomly located stationary target. Our results show that sensor mobility can be exploited to compensate for the lack of sensors and improve network coverage. For mobile targets, we take a game theoretic approach and derive optimal mobility strategies for sensors and targets from their own perspectives.

Abstract-We consider a large-scale wireless network, but with a low density of nodes per unit area. Interferences are then less critical, contrary to connectivity. This paper studies the latter property for both a purely ad-hoc network and a hybrid network, where fixed base stations can be reached in multiple hops. We assume here that power constraints are modeled by a maximal distance above which two nodes are not (directly) connected.We find that the introduction of a sparse network of base stations does significantly help in increasing the connectivity, but only when the node density is much larger in one dimension than in the other. We explain the results by percolation theory. We obtain analytical expressions of the probability of connectivity in the 1-dim. case. We also show that at a low spatial density of nodes, bottlenecks are unavoidable. Results obtained on actual population data confirm our findings.

Abstract-We study the impact of interferences on the connectivity of large-scale ad-hoc networks, using percolation theory. We assume that a bi-directional connection can be set up between two nodes if the signal to noise ratio at the receiver is larger than some threshold. The noise is the sum of the contribution of interferences from all other nodes, weighted by a coefficient γ, and of a background noise.We find that there is a critical value of γ above which the network is made of disconnected clusters of nodes. We also prove that if γ is non zero but small enough, there exist node spatial densities for which the network contains a large (theoretically infinite) cluster of nodes, enabling distant nodes to communicate in multiple hops. Since small values of γ cannot be achieved without efficient CDMA codes, we investigate the use of a very simple TDMA scheme, where nodes can emit only every n-th time slot. We show qualitatively that it even achieves a better connectivity than the previous system with a parameter γ/n.