Path Efficiency in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

The process of routing in large ad-hoc mobile networks is theoretically analyzed as the capacity of a packet to be directed form a source to a destination. The equivalence between directivity and an effective radius, which represents the actual knowledge of any node of its neighbourhood, is demonstrated. The mobility of the network is modelled as that resulting from the most probable distribution of mobile nodes. The results are conclusive: mobility reduces the throughput and delay performance of any routing algorithm with a finite effective radius.