Throughput and delay analysis for hybrid radio-frequency and free-space-optical (RF/FSO) networks

In this paper the per-node throughput and end-to-end delay of randomly deployed (i.e. ad-hoc) hybrid radio frequency - free space optics (RF/FSO) networks are studied. The hybrid RF/FSO network consists of an RF ad hoc network of n nodes, f(n) of them, termed ‘super nodes’, are equipped with an additional FSO transceiver with transmission range s(n). Every RF and FSO transceiver is able to transmit at a maximum data rate of W1 and W2 bits/sec, respectively. An upper bound on the per node throughput capacity is derived. In order to prove that this upper bound is achievable, a hybrid routing scheme is designed whereby the data traffic is divided into two classes and assigned different forwarding strategies. The capacity improvement with the support of FSO nodes is evaluated and compared against the corresponding results for pure RF wireless networks. Under optimal throughput scaling, the scaling of average end-to-end delay is derived. A significant gain in throughput capacity and a notable reduction in delay will be achieved if $$f(n) = \Upomega\left(\frac{1}{s(n)}\sqrt{\frac{n}{\log n}}\cdot \frac{W_1}{W_2} \right)$$. Furthermore, it is found that for fixed W1, f(n) and n where f(n) < n, there is no capacity incentive to increase the FSO data rate beyond a critical value. In addition, both throughput and delay can achieve linear scaling by properly adjusting the FSO transmission range and the number of FSO nodes.