Scalability, Capacity and Local Connectivity in Ad Hoc Networks

This chapter is a great interest in the future potential of ad hoc networks. However, before they take off on a large scale a solid understanding of their performance and coverage is essential. In this chapter we have discussed in detail the overall available capacity in a network of randomly distributed nodes as well as the conditions for the network being locally connected. We have demonstrated that capacity and local connectivity are complementary quantities in the sense that by improving the probability of local connectivity one decreases the overall available capacity in the network and vice versa. We have shown that by applying antennas which focus their beams towards the nodes with which they directly communicate, the overall capacity of the network can be increased substantially without reducing the level of local connectivity. This issue is likely to become very important, particularly in the case of dynamic.