Smooth is better than sharp: a random mobility model for simulation of wireless networks

This paper presents an enhanced random mobility model for simulation-based studies of wireless networks. Our approach makes the movement trace of individual mobile stations more realistic than common approaches for random movement. After giving a survey of mobility models found in the literature, we give a detailed mathematical formulation of our model and outline its advantages. The movement concept is based on random processes for speed and direction control in which the new values are correlated to previous ones. Upon a speed change event, a new target speed is chosen, and an acceleration is set to achieve this target speed. The principles for a direction change are similar. Moreover, we propose two extensions for modeling typical movement patterns of vehicles. Finally, we consider strategies for the nodes' border behavior (i.e., what happens when nodes move out of the simulation area) and point out a pitfall that occurs when using a bounded simulation area.