Small worlds in wireless networks

• Published in: IEEE communications letters Vol. 7; no. 10; pp. 490 - 492
• Main Author: Helmy, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.10.2003; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithm design and analysis; Algorithms; Applied sciences; Bit rate; Clustering; Distributed algorithms; Engineering profession; Exact sciences and technology; Graphs; Hops; Intelligent networks; Links; Miscellaneous; Networks; Performance enhancement; Postal services; Spread spectrum communication; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Teleprocessing networks. Isdn; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor networks; Wireless telecommunication; Network architecture; wireless networks; Resource management; Ad hoc network; Sensor array; Small worlds
• ISSN: 1089-7798; 1558-2558
• DOI: 10.1109/LCOMM.2003.818887

In this study, the concept of small worlds is investigated in the context of wireless networks. Wireless networks are spatial graphs that tend to be much more clustered than random networks and have much higher path length characteristics. We observe that by adding a few short cut links, path length of wireless networks is reduced drastically. More interestingly, such short cut links need not be random but may be confined to a limited number of hops; a fraction of the network diameter. This facilitates the design of practical distributed algorithms, based on contacts, to improve performance of resource discovery in wireless networks.