An Optimal-Hop-Count Transmission Scheduling Policy with Maximum Delay Guarantees for Delay Tolerant Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A well established principle in the theory of wireless ad hoc networks with randomly moving nodes states that mobility increases the capacity of such networks at the expense of increased packet delivery delays. In this paper we explore the more practical problem of taking advantage of mobility to reduce source-destination path lengths (and therefore increase network throughput) in networks that can tolerate delays up to a certain finite value. We propose an optimal stopping rule policy to select the optimal time to transmit packets based on current shortest path length information and a stochastic model of the connectivity dynamics. Simulation results that illustrate the validity of this approach are presented and the dependence of the performance gain on the network parameters is analyzed.