Building a reference combinatorial model for MANETs

Wireless technologies and the deployment of mobile and nomadic services are driving the emergence of complex ad hoc networks that have a highly dynamic behavior. Modeling such dynamics and creating a reference model on which results could be compared and reproduced, was stated as a fundamental issue by a recent NSF workshop on networking. In this article we show how the modeling of time-changes unsettles old questions and allows for new insights into central problems in networking, such as routing metrics, connectivity, and spanning trees. Such modeling is made possible through evolving graphs, a simple combinatorial model that helps capture the behavior or dynamic networks over time.