On the efficacy of mobility modeling for DTN evaluation: Analysis of encounter statistics and spatio-temporal preferences

Gautam S. Thakur, Udayan Kumar, Ahmed Helmy, Wei Jen Hsu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

In mobile networking, the main goal of mobility modeling and simulation is the ability to accurately reproduce effects of realistic mobility on the performance of networking protocols. In the areas of adhoc and delay tolerant networks (DTNs), recent work on mobility modeling focused on replicating metrics of encounter statistics and spatio-temporal preferences. No studies have been conducted, however, to show whether matching these metrics is sufficient to accurately reproduce DTN protocol performance. In this study, we address this specific problem, and attempt to show the sufficiency (or lack thereof) of existing encounter and mobility metrics in reproducing realistic effects of mobility on networking protocols. We first analyze the characteristics of two well-established mobility models; the random direction and the time-variant community (TVC) models, and study whether they capture encounter statistics and preference patterns observed in real-world traces. Second, we contrast the performance of epidemic routing in DTNs based on the mobility models, to that based on extensive mobility traces. We provide two main findings. First, careful parameterization of the models can indeed replicate the metrics in question (e.g., inter-encounter time distribution). Second, even carefully crafted mobility models surprisingly result in protocol performance that is dramatically different from the trace-driven performance. The difference in message delivery delays can reach 67%, while difference in reachability approaches 80%. Such findings strongly suggest the need to revisit mobility modeling. Furthermore, they clearly show the insufficiency of existing encounter and preference metrics as a measure of mobility model goodness. Systematically establishing a new set of meaningful mobility metrics should certainly be addressed in future works.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIWCMC 2011 - 7th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference
Pages510-515
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011
Externally publishedYes
Event7th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, IWCMC 2011 - Istanbul, Turkey
Duration: Jul 4 2011Jul 8 2011

Publication series

NameIWCMC 2011 - 7th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference

Conference

Conference7th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, IWCMC 2011
Country/TerritoryTurkey
CityIstanbul
Period07/4/1107/8/11

Keywords

  • encounter statistics
  • epidemic routing
  • mobility models
  • spatio-temporal performances

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