Impact of Link Distance on End-to-End Throughput in Multi-Rate, Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

Traditional routing protocols designed for multi-hop wireless networks select a route with the smallest hop count. The end-to-end throughput in the route may not be the maximum when network has multiple link data rates, as a small hop number implies a large geographic distance (link distance) for each hop. Due to the radio signal attenuation, this results in a low SNR at the receiving node and consequently a low available link data rate. Reducing the link distance by using routes with more hop counts can increase the link data rate. Yet this may not necessarily improve the end-to-end throughput because more nodes have to be included in the routes. In this work we investigate and analyze the impact of link distance on end-to-end throughput in multi-rate, multi-hop wireless networks. Analysis results show that changing link distance affects network throughput. To achieve a high network throughput, a proper link distance requirement has to be set for each hop, depending on different parameters such as load density.