Monitoring Mobile Packet Radio Devices

A store-and-forward broadcast radio network with mobile switching nodes is considered. The problems of monitoring connectivity changes in the network and updating information in switching nodes to enable routing of messages are addressed. Analytical models are developed for determining the fraction of time that switching nodes have correct information as a function of trajectory and speed for mobility, monitoring rate, traffic load, and network topology. The problems are parametrically investigated and results of monitoring rate to obtain performance requirements are obtained. These studies show that the monitoring rate is very sensitive to velocity; specifically, as the velocity doubles, so does the monitoring rate. These results are a first step in obtaining meaningful operating parameters to be used in experimental networks.