Mathematical Modeling and Analysis Methodology for Opportunistic Routing in Wireless Multihop Networks

Modeling the forwarding feature and analyzing the performance theoretically for opportunistic routing in wireless multihop network are of great challenge. To address this issue, a generalized geometric distribution (GGD) is firstly proposed. Based on the GGD, the forwarding probability between any two forwarding candidates could be calculated and it can be proved that the successful delivery rate after several transmissions of forwarding candidates is irrelevant to the priority rule. Then, a discrete-time queuing model is proposed to analyze mean end-to-end delay (MED) of a regular opportunistic routing with the knowledge of the forwarding probability. By deriving the steady-state joint generating function of the queue length distribution, MED for directly connected networks and some special cases of nondirectly connected networks could be ultimately determined. Besides, an approximation approach is proposed to assess MED for the general cases in the nondirectly connected networks. By comparing with a large number of simulation results, the rationality of the analysis is validated. Both the analysis and simulation results show that MED varies with the number of forwarding candidates, especially when it comes to connected networks; MED increases more rapidly than that in nondirectly connected networks with the increase of the number of forwarding candidates.