Modelling and evaluating network formation functions in self-organising radio networks

In self-organising radio networks, capable of supporting terminal mobility and distributed operations, the time required to form and reconfigure the network is an important design issue. In this paper we explain the design policies applicable to the network formation process, and propose measures which can be used for its evaluation. In a dynamic environment, we can monitor the stability of network connectivity information, and use the results to trigger various network control procedures. We present and compare results of simulations involving multi-hop radio networks with large numbers of nodes (up to 169) and varying nodal degrees (up to 20), for fixed and adaptive transmission policies. We show that the use of adaptive control policies greatly improves the performance of self-organisation, when no knowledge about the distribution of network nodes can be assumed at the start-up time