Analysis and evaluation of wireless ad hoc network performance for a disaster communication model and scenarios

Abstract

When a large-scale disaster occurs, the telephone network and the cellular phone network may not be able to be used because of the hardware destruction and/or congestion. The wireless ad hoc network is expected to be a means of communication in such cases because it can be configured without network infrastructure. One of the most important problems in the wireless ad hoc network is maintaining high connectivity by autonomous routing according to the movement of the terminals. Another important problem is reducing the power consumption of the mobile terminals because the power resource of each mobile terminal is limited. In this study, it is aimed to solve both these problems and try to clarify the relationship between the quantity of routing packets and the data arrival rate when packet transmission intervals are changed in our model by use of a network simulator. The parameter values of Ad hoc On demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocol also changed to improve the network performance. Three communication scenarios termed the two-way communication, the one-way data delivery, and the browsing that could occur in disaster situations are used. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.