Ad-Hoc Wireless Networking for Supporting Communication and Onsite Data Collection

Ad-hoc networks are self-organized wireless networks. This paper presents a new approach to investigate problems related to deploying ad-hoc wireless networks for supporting communication and onsite data collection. Several modes of communication which are common in field applications are considered including location information, text messaging, voice and video communications, and file transmission. A prototype system is implemented for testing these modes based on available ad-hoc network protocols and using mobile devices. Furthermore, we introduce a new protocol based on clustering to improve data accessibility and present the simulated results of the performance of this protocol using different scenarios of ad-hoc clusters. The simulation shows the impact of the area size, wireless range, number of nodes, and node speed on data accessibility.