Wireless Networks and the Expected Next Revolution in Information Technology

To operate wireless networks in a multi-hop fashion, protocols for medium access control, routing, power control, and transport are needed. Since bandwidth in a wireless network may be scarce in comparison to optical fiber there is interest in increasing the efficiency of protocols for these networks. Thus, there have been efforts in advancing a "next" generation protocol suite that utilizes the shared wireless medium in a more efficient way. Over the past few years the problem of how to address wireless networks in the aggregate has been addressed, with the goal of making some progress toward understanding what their capabilities are and how they are to be operated. The issue is that every wireless network can potentially be different from others in the number of nodes it has, where they are located, the traffic requirements imposed on it. This chapter describes wireless network models in which distance plays an explicit role. 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wireless Networks and the Expected Next Revolution in Information Technology Chapter