Abstract
Issues of path-establishment and source-destination connectivity in mobile ad-hoc networks are addressed under scenarios that combine highly-challenging topologies (such as link fades) along with stringent application requirements, situations where traditional network designs tend to under-perform. In such propagation-harsh conditions, the main metrics of interest are path reliability plus sufficient throughput (or minimal delay) in order to support time-critical and delay-sensitive applications in addition to classic, delay-tolerant data applications. Certain recently proposed, pragmatic, autonomous-cooperation path-establishment mechanisms are examined thoroughly via analysis and simulation in order to assess their performance in comparison to more traditional solutions, under various parametric settings. Various related trade-offs are also identified.