Wireless network characterization via phase diagrams

Abstract

Like physical systems can exist in different phases, the concept of different phases (or states) can be also attributed to other types of systems, such as wireless networks. In this paper we employ the notion of phase diagrams to characterize a wireless network by means of a reduced number of simulation points. By reducing the amount of simulations - compared to fine-grained simulation-based analyses - we decrease the accuracy of the result, however, not in an arbitrary way. The idea is to derive the so-called phase diagram that fully characterizes the system with respect to the points of state changes. Typically, the different states of a system correspond to distinguishable macroscopic properties, therefore the phase transition points are in a qualitative sense points of particular significance for a system under study. We show how phase diagrams can be estimated from a limited set of simulation points by means of Support Vector Machines.