Quantification of mobility in communication networks with topology transitions

A computational scheme based on topology transition is presented to quantify the mobility behavior of units in a mobile communication network. This model quantifies the effect of migration of a given unit on the relative stability of connections to its neighbors. Three metrics, namely, image-transition related, migrate-away related and add-in related metrics have been defined and their interrelationships studied. The simultaneous use of both the migrate-away related metric and the add-in related metric could indicate what kind of relative migration a unit is undergoing. For a communication network, these metrics indicate the magnitudes of a unit's mobility and stability. By checking these metrics, a unit can possibly choose a neighbor with a more stable condition to transmit messages to desired destination from several possible candidates that can reduce the overhead needed for route recovery when a route failure occurs.