Impact of Topology-dependent and independent Mobility Models on the Connectivity of Wireless Networks

The performance of the algorithms developed for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks is strictly dependent upon the changes in the physical topology of such networks. In this work, the connectivity and average path length of a static wireless network is studied in the presence of overlaying mobile nodes. A topology-based mobility model is proposed and the performance is empirically compared with traditional mobility models, such as random walk, for grid, random, and degree-limited initial topologies for different network sizes. It is shown that the connectivity of randomly distributed wireless networks can significantly be improved even with a single additional mobile node.