A general framework for the capacity analysis of wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper, we introduce a general framework for computation of throughput capacity of wireless ad-hoc networks under all kinds of information modalities. We consider point-to-point communication for unicast, multicast, broadcast and any type of anycast routing and under physical model assumption. The general communication is denoted as (n, m, k)-cast where n is the number of nodes in the network, m+1 is the number of elements in (n, m, k)-cast group and k(klesm) is the number of destinations that receive packets from the source in each (n, m, k)-cast group. For example, (m=k=1) and (m=k=n) represent unicast and broadcast routings respectively. We demonstrate that the upper bound of throughput capacity is given by O(radicm(radic(nk))
^-1
) bits/second. The lower bound of throughput capacity is computed as Omega(radicm((nkd)(n))
^-1
), Omega((nkd
²
(n))
^-1
) and Omega(n
^-1
) bits/second when m=O(d
^-2
(n)), Omega(k)=(d
^-2
(n))=O(m) and Omega(d
^-2
(n))=k respectively, where d(n) is a network parameter. The upper bound capacity is achieved based on (n, m, k)-cast tree constructed for routing and transport capacity while the lower bound capacity is achieved based on TDMA scheme and connected cell graph along (n, m, k)-cast tree.