Improving the dependability of wireless networks using design techniques

Network dependability is an important issue for service providers, vendors, and users. Although some work has been done in wireline networks for improving reliability, availability, and survivability aspects of network dependability, very little work has been done to do the same for wireless networks. As wireless networks are more likely to have dependability problems, we believe that some work is necessary to address the dependability issues in wireless networks. We propose an integrated approach using design changes and fault-tolerance to improve the dependability of wireless networks. More specifically, we present several architectures to improve the dependability of wireless networks, a simulation model for evaluating one or more of these architectures, and detailed performance results. The results show that significant improvements are possible in the wireless dependability attributes of the current and emerging wireless networks. We have also obtained results for fault-tolerant architectures of varying size, showing substantial improvements in both network availability and survivability attributes.