RWPAD: A Mobility Model for DTN Routing Performance Evaluation

Mobility Model has drawn more and more attentions since its important role in Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs) routing protocol performance evaluation. In this paper, we first present a survey of various mobility models, and then analyze the movement characteristics in the disaster rescue scenario in detail. After that, we introduce a novel mobility model, the Random Way Point with Attraction Direction (RWPAD) Model to represent the rescue and transport groups in this special scenario. Then we investigate the impact of the mobility model on the performance evaluation of specific DTN protocols. To this end, we compare our models to the existing ones under five classic DTN routing protocols. The results indicate that different mobility patterns significantly affect the various protocols in different ways. So before a new routing protocol is deployed in a real situation, it should be tested under the scenario based mobility models. The model we proposed in this paper provides a relatively more realistic environment basis for DTN routing protocol research in the disaster rescue scenario than the existing ones.