On the User-centric Connection Availability of Mobile Wireless Networks

In this paper we study the connection availability of wireless networks from the perspective of end users with individual mobility, in contrast to existing studies mainly focusing on network-centric connectivity. Specifically, we evaluate the user connectivity by two metrics: neighbor connection time and neighbor isolation time. The former is the time for a node being connected with at least one neighbor; while the latter is the time for a node being isolated before it is connected to new neighbors. By using the theory of Markov renewal process, we obtain the asymptotic bounds on the expected neighbor connection and isolation times, which are dependent on the node density, transmission range, and average speed. We find that if the network is super-critical, implying the existence of a unique giant (connected) component, both asymptotic bounds scale with the number of nodes in the network; otherwise, expected connection and isolation times are constant.