Simulating mission critical mobile ad hoc networks

In this paper we present a mobility model for ad hoc networks operating in mission critical situations, like for example natural or man-made disasters, military activities or emergency healthcare services. The proposed model captures the properties of mobility in situations like the above by incorporating hierarchical node organisation, typical for such scenarios modes of node activity, event-based destination selection and presence of physical obstacles that affect both the node movement and the signal propagation. The nodes are divided into groups with each group leader responsible for choosing the destination points. These choices resemble the events that occur in the network deployment area and the corresponding missions that are assigned to the node groups. The proposed model includes two modes of node activity that represent the two types of nodes primarily comprising such networks: the emergency workers and the medical staff. Each event belongs to a certain class, according to which reinforcements are called to provide further assistance. The conducted simulation study highlights the differences between the proposed model and other mobility models, by investigating their properties in terms of the resulting network topology and their impact on the performance of an ad hoc network operating under a well known routing protocol.