The fundamental limits of broadcasting in dense wireless mobile networks

In this paper, we investigate the fundamental properties of broadcasting in mobile wireless networks. In particular, we characterize broadcast capacity and latency of a mobile network, subject to the condition that the stationary node spatial distribution generated by the mobility model is uniform. We first study the intrinsic properties of broadcasting, and present the RippleCast broadcasting scheme that simultaneously achieves asymptotically optimal broadcast capacity and latency, subject to a weak upper bound on maximum node velocity and under the assumption of static broadcast source. We then extend RippleCast with the novel notion of center-casting, and prove that asymptotically optimal broadcast capacity and latency can be achieved also when the broadcast source is mobile. This study intendedly ignores the burden related to the selection of broadcast relay nodes within the mobile network, and shows that optimal broadcasting in mobile networks is, in principle, possible. We then investigate the broadcasting problem when the relay selection burden is taken into account, and present a combined distributed leader election and broadcasting scheme achieving a broadcast capacity and latency which is within a \(\Uptheta((\log n)^{1+\frac{2}{\alpha}})\) factor from optimal, where n is the number of mobile nodes and α > 2 is the path loss exponent. However, this result holds only under the assumption that the upper bound on node velocity converges to zero (although with a very slow, poly-logarithmic rate) as n grows to infinity.