AUTHOR
Jacobson, Andree

DATE
2000-05-26

DEPARTMENT
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering / Computer Communication

SUMMARY
An ad hoc network, is a network that can form wherever two or more nodes using the same preferences to communicate are present. Such a network need no centralized control organ and is perfectly suited for many applications, disaster scenarios, search-and-rescue operations and police matters to mention some. This is currently an interesting research area and it is desirable to find good communication standards.

Part of this standardization procedure is the evaluation of suggested routing protocols. To compare these routing protocols, useful protocol independent metrics are needed. This thesis presents two new metrics. One describes the density of the network and another describes the direct connectivity rate for the nodes in the network.

Using a simulation study, it is shown that the density metric is useful when comparing ad hoc routing protocols. Direct connectivity and its close relationship to density is discussed. It is shown that the two new metrics are proportional. The conclusion is that direct connectivity is the preferable metric since no routing can take place if nodes are not connected.

ISSN 1402-1617 / ISRN LTU-EX--00/146--SE / NR 2000:146