A New Random Mobile Model for Analysis of Ad Hoc Networks Routing Protocols

Performance analysis is of major importance in the design of routing protocols in ad hoc networks. Many of these analyses were run on the synthetic mobility models which resemble the behavior of real "mobile entities". Based on such models, basic conclusions with respect to critical network parameters can be provided. Therefore, good mobility models should be designed to draw conclusions closer to the physical world. In this paper, a new random mobile model is provided. The next destination of a node in a scenario generated by this model is determined by a random velocity vector and moving time, but not by a random destination as in random waypoint model, which is a commonly used mobility model in the simulation of ad hoc networks. This makes the average speed steady and the spatial distribution of nodes uniform. The experiment results show that mobile nodes in scenarios generated by the new model run more uniformly on the whole simulation area than in those generated by random waypoint model. It is the first time to use the rate of change in node status to evaluate the performance of routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks. We find that the rate of change has remarkably effect on the performance of routing protocols and the performance of routing protocols decrease as the average moving range of nodes enlarges.