Route availability as a communication quality metric of a mobile Ad hoc network

Abstract

Using ad hoc communication between mobile terminals, MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) are independent of any communication infrastructure but their communication quality can degrade because, as terminals move about in the service area, routes are constantly disconnected and then re-established. There has been no proposal for a quality metric that models this unstable state, i.e., route nonuniformity. This paper proposes a new concept of route availability (RA) as a metric of route nonuniformity in a MANET and verifies how effectively it represents the quality of service (QoS) of a network or the quality of experience (QoE) of video streaming. We have built an environment that emulates a MANET capable of video streaming, and developed a method of measuring RA for two representative MANET routing methods: AODV (Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector) and OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing). We have examined the relationship between RA and conventional network QoS metrics: packet loss rate and throughput. We have also checked RA using a subjective quality assessment test.