Computing two-terminal reliability in mobile ad hoc networks

Most of the existing techniques for network reliability evaluation are based on assumptions that all the nodes are perfect and the communication links are static and irreplaceable. However, these assumptions are not applicable for mobile ad hoc networks because of the rapid changes in connectivity and link characteristics due to nodes' mobility. Reliability computations in mobile ad hoc networks should consider the failures of nodes and links in addition to the dynamic of network connectivity caused by nodes' mobility. In this paper, we consider the computation of the two-terminal reliability in ad hoc networks by extending the algorithm proposed by Rai et al [1] to handle imperfect nodes and the dynamic network connectivity. The effect of nodes failure rates and the mobility pattern on the two-terminal reliability are presented.