A Proposal for a New Measure Analogous to Entropy for Bandwidth Constrained, Control-Based Ad-Hoc Network Design

In an ad-hoc network where available bandwidth is limited, the amount of transmitted data needs to be reduced. Especially in mission-critical ad-hoc networks such as tactical or disaster rescue networks, the bandwidth constraints are much more severe than in commercial or general public networks. In order to decrease the data amount, flexibility of the transmitted information should be limited. In traditional information theory, the basic criterion for effectiveness of coding is entropy based on probability. In this paper, we propose a new measure, urgency index and urgency entropy, to evaluate the effectiveness of coding in urgent communication and discuss its usefulness for designs of bandwidth constrained, control-based ad-hoc networks from a viewpoint of utility functions and elasticity