Availability of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks of Unmanned Ground Vehicles with Group Mobility

Maintaining network availability is critical to teams of mobile unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and requires a realistic mobility model for accurate calculation. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) have been extensively studied using the random waypoint mobility model. But to more exactly model teams of unmanned systems and their relative positions, we provide a model of communication states using the reference point group mobility (RPGM) model. We consider the unique requirements of unmanned systems as having two data rate thresholds. The analysis includes log-normal shadowing and determines the probability that each team member has received power above a threshold while moving. The analysis results allow computation of network availability in different topologies. We conclude with a discussion of various methods for overcoming shadowing and small-scale fading effects in order to maintain high network availability of MANETs.