Link and Route Availability for Inter-working Multi-hop Wireless Networks

In inter-working multi-hop wireless networks, establishing resilient connectivity between source-destination node pairs is a major issue. The issues of connectivity in multihop wireless networks have been studied. However these analyses focused on network connectivity in ad-hoc networks. Since the next generation of wireless networks will be inter-working, an understanding of connectivity as it applies to such networks is needed. An inter-working scenario will be when a multi-hop WiFi network is inter-worked with a multi-hop WiMAX network. Specifically, this research emphasizes that the connectivity of node pairs in inter-working multi-hop wireless networks can be evaluated based on the availability and reliability of radio links that form the communication path linking the nodes. This paper presents the initial part of the research, which is an analytical study of the link and route availability in inter-working multi-hop wireless networks.