Robustness analysis of mobile ad hoc networks using human mobility traces

With the rapid advancement of wireless technology and the exponential increase of wireless devices in the past decades, there are more consumer applications for MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) in addition to the traditional military uses. A resilient and robust MANET is essential to high service quality for applications. The dynamically changing topologies of MANETs pose a huge challenge to normal network operations. Furthermore, malicious attacks against critical nodes in the network could result in the deterioration of the network. In this paper, we employ several real-world human mobility traces to analyze network robustness in the time domain. We apply attacks against important nodes of the human topology and compare the impact of attacks based on different centrality measures. Our results confirm that nodes with high betweenness in a well-connected large dynamic network play the most pivotal roles in the communication between all node pairs.