A practical study of the Random Waypoint mobility model in simulations of ad hoc networks

This work describes an empirical framework for the study of the simulated time that is required for a proper utilisation of mobility models in ad hoc network simulations. In our analysis, link duration is utilised as a useful indicator of the effects of mobility on the network performance. By means of extensive simulations with typical ad hoc network scenarios that employ the Random Waypoint Model, the study tries to find and optimise the simulation time that guarantees a minimum bias in the estimation of the link duration. The results confirm that fixing a common simulation time for all the possible mobility scenarios, as it is normally performed in the literature, leads to strongly unstable and biased estimates of the link duration. In order to solve this situation, the paper provides a practical worst-case formula to define the recommendable simulation time as a function of the parameters of the mobility model.