Contact-based mobility metrics for delay-tolerant ad hoc networking

Mobility plays a major role in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) since it stresses networking tasks such as routing on one hand but aids to increase the network capacity and to overcome network partitioning on the other hand. To benefit from node mobility, a new class of MANET protocols and applications are designed to be delay-tolerant and mobility-aided. For delay-tolerant mobility-aided networking mobility on a large time-scale is a key feature. So far, in MANETs, the mobility is investigated on a short time-scale. That is why we present novel mobility metrics that quantify large time-scale mobility. Our approach is based on the pair-wise contacts between mobile nodes. We present a detailed statistical study of our novel metrics using the widely used random waypoint mobility model as an example. For the random waypoint model we introduce an analytical model, which allows protocol developers to analytically compute some of the designed metrics. In order to provide an easy access to these metrics in a network simulator, we provide a framework for ns-2.