A modified random way-point model equalized for the node crowding effect

Abstract

The problem of crowding of nodes in the center of the simulation area in the random way-point mobility model for ad hoc networks is addressed in this paper. A novel method is proposed to make the distribution of nodes uniform. This is achieved by making the pause time of the nodes dependent on their pause location. Closed form expressions for the pause times as functions of spatial coordinates are derived and validated through simulations. Employing this modified model will remove any artifacts in simulation results which may arise due to nodes crowding in the center of the simulation area. The modification to the random way-point model is simple and can be easily incorporated in simulators such as ns-2 and GloMoSim.