Mobility increases the capacity of ad hoc wireless networks

Abstract

The capacity of ad hoc wireless networks is constrained by the mutual interference of concurrent transmissions between nodes. We study a model of an ad hoc network where n nodes communicate in random source-destination pairs. These nodes are assumed to be mobile. We examine the per-session throughput for applications with loose delay constraints, such that the topology changes over the time-scale of packet delivery. Under this assumption, the per-user throughput can increase dramatically when nodes are mobile rather than fixed. This improvement can be achieved by exploiting a form of multiuser diversity via packet relaying.