Unidirectional links in an ad hoc network can result from factors such as heterogeneity of receiver and transmitter hardware, power control or topology control algorithms, or differing sources of interference or jamming. Previously proposed metrics for evaluating the difficulty of a unidirectional scenario are limited in scope and are frequently misleading. To be able to analyze ad hoc network routing protocol behavior in a complex networking environment, it is not sufficient to merely assign a single level of difficulty to a unidirectional network scenario; the many interrelated routing characteristics of these scenarios must be understood. In this paper, we develop a set of metrics for describing these characteristics, for example for characterizing routing scenarios in simulations, analysis, and testbed implementations. Based on these metrics, we perform a detailed simulation analysis of the routing characteristics of the three most common simulation models for generating unidirect...
Jorjeta G. Jetcheva, David B. Johnson