Roadmapping Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

In recent years there has been a growing interest in using mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) for commercial purposes. However, there has been little effort to tie business and technical aspects together in order to design solutions that are both technically and financially feasible. Standard scenarios commonly quoted for MANETs tend to be either unnecessary or too limited in scope. Without comprehensive application scenarios that can be tested through simulations and test beds, it is unclear whether large scale MANET applications will eventually be feasible, and under what conditions this might occur. The aim of this project is to research the technological, financial and business aspects of mobile ad hoc networks and combine them in order to form a coherent view of the possible futures for this relatively new technological concept.

In this project, we propose a number of novel MANET application scenarios and use simulations incorporating mobility and propagation models together with MAC and routing protocols to perform comprehensive performance evaluations of the system. Through this work we are able to identify the factors that are most important to the performance of MANETs as well as important design considerations that need to be factored-in when designing systems of this type.