Design concepts: wireless moving networks (WMN)

This paper reports on preliminary work on the design of an experimental ad hoc network to be deployed on moving platforms. We discuss and evaluate a moving wireless network consisting of a collection of wireless terminals operating as a moving wireless ´local´ area network (m-WLAN) carried by a platform in motion. Each m-WLAN communicates wirelessly with a global fixed or wireless network through an anchor or master (M) node. The network travels at a speed v km/hr as the master node maintains attachment to a global fixed network. The slave nodes and their master (M) node retain a wireless local area network structure in a mobile system scenario (truck, bus, train and airplane). We introduce the new concepts of communication possibility and network mobility in addition to device and personal mobility. We describe and explore network mobility in detail providing insight into the requirements.