A geometrical analysis of obstructed wireless networks

Obstructions between communicating pairs reduce the reliability of data transfer in high frequency wireless networks, for which vehicular ad hoc networks serve as an emerging example. In this paper we introduce a geometric framework which enables us to analyze the effect of obstacles on the capacity of such networks. Towards this goal, we introduce concepts from combinatorial geometry (such as hidden sets and link distances) which later prove useful in our analysis of the worst case geocast capacity of obstructed wireless networks. The authors have previously utilized similar notions to propose geometry-aware communications algorithms and also to tackle the roadside unit deployment problem in such networks. We believe that this study is a pioneer in blending the effect of obstacles into prior capacity-related theoretical results.