The Impact of Link Layer Model on the Capacity of a Random Ad hoc Network

The problem of determining asymptotic bounds on the capacity of a random ad hoc network is considered. Previous approaches assumed a threshold-based link layer model in which a packet transmission is successful if the SINR at the receiver is greater than a fixed threshold. In reality, the mapping from SINR to packet success probability is continuous. Hence, over each hop, for every finite SINR, there is a non-zero probability of packet loss. With this more realistic link model, it is shown that for a broad class of routing and scheduling schemes, a fixed fraction of hops on each route have a fixed non-zero packet loss probability. In a large network, a packet travels an asymptotically large number of hops from source to destination. Consequently, it is shown that the cumulative effect of per-hop packet loss results in a per-node throughput of only O (1/n) (instead of thetas[1/radic(n log n)] as shown previously for the threshold-based link model)