An analytical model for performance evaluation in sparse mobile ad hoc networks

Routing protocols for sparse mobile ad hoc networks are becoming important due to applications such as vehicular networks and emergency services. Simulation based performance evaluation of a given protocol is computationally demanding, requiring a significant amount of time and resources. For this reason, analytical approaches to performance evaluation are desirable; however, such approaches are challenging to develop. In this paper, we present an analytical model to calculate two important performance metrics, namely throughput and average end-to-end delay, for a sparse mobile ad hoc network routing protocol. In our protocol, independent mobile nodes move in a bounded region and communicate indirectly through passive RFID tags that act like mailboxes. We analyze our protocol for two different buffer policies by providing analytical equations to calculate throughput and delay for each buffer policy. Finally, we support our equations via simulation.