The Impact of Rate Adaptation on Capacity-Delay Tradeoffs in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract—In this paper, we focus on the asymptotic capacity and delay, and their tradeoffs in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). As we all know, some fixed rate communication models such as the protocol model and the physical model have been studied in the past. However, our work aims to investigate the impact of an adaptive rate communication model on capacity-delay tradeoffs in MANETs under classical mobility models. Specifically, we adopt a well-known adaptive rate model called the generalized physical model (GphyM). The mobility of nodes is characterized by two broad classes of practical mobility models and they are hybrid random walk models and discrete random direction models. The two models generalize many mobility models studied in the literature, including the random walk, i.i.d., Brownian, and random way point models. For each mobility model, we derive the optimal delay for the optimal per-session unicast capacity (that of constant order Θ(1)) under the generalized physical model, depending on the individual parameters of mobility models. In particular, we show that for the i.i.d. model, compared with those under the protocol and physical models, the adaptive feature of link rate under the generalized physical model results in a significant decrease in the optimal delay for the optimal capacity; more precisely, both the optimal capacity and optimal delay can be simultaneously achieved, while there is no improvement for the random way-point model