Modeling and analysis of channel transferability in mobile computing environments

Mobile computers use wireless channels to communicate with other computers. The finite number of channels should be efficiently allocated to maximize throughput and to avoid co-channel interference. Temporal variations in, channel demand (load) require channel allocation to adapt dynamically to the changing demand. The presence of load imbalance does not automatically imply the usefulness of channel transfer. In this paper we present a probabilistic analysis of the temporal imbalance in channel demand. The effectiveness of channel transfer decisions depends on the probability distribution of the duration for which the imbalance persists. The results of our analysis provide guidelines for the design of dynamic distributed channel allocation strategies.