The traffic carrying capacity of wireless networks

How much traffic can wireless networks carry? Consider n nodes located in a disk of area A sq. meters, each capable of transmitting at a data rate of W bits/sec. Under a protocol based model for successful receptions, the total network can carry only /spl Theta/ (W/spl radic/An) bit-meters/sec, where 1 bit carried a distance of 1 meter is counted as 1 bit-meter. This is the best possible even assuming the nodes locations, traffic patterns, and the range/power of each transmission, are all optimally chosen. If the node locations and their destinations are randomly chosen, and all transmissions employ the same power/range, then each node only obtains a throughput of /spl Theta/ (W/spl radic/nlogn) bits/sec, if the network is optimally operated. Similar results hold for a physical SIR based model.