Systems and methods for modeling a mobile ad hoc wireless network

1. A method for modeling a mobile ad hoc wireless network for a predetermined geographical area, comprising:

(a) dividing said geographic area into a network grid including a plurality of network grid elements;

(b) locating one or more obstacles, if any, to communication between transmission nodes located in at least two different grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements;

(c) locating one or more bottlenecks, within said plurality of network grid elements;

(d) locating one or more network grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted;

(e) determining a transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks;

(f) comparing said transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks to determine if any of said one or more bottlenecks are not real bottlenecks; and

(g) removing said one or more bottlenecks that are not real bottlenecks from said model;

wherein at least said determining is performed utilizing a processor operatively coupled to a wireless connection device, and further operatively coupled to a memory.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein locating one or more bottlenecks, within said plurality of network grid elements comprises:

(a) determining the one or more minimum distances between at least two obstacles having a line of sight between them;

(b) storing said one or more minimum distances for said at least two obstacles in numerical order; and

(c) designating, in numerical order, said one or more minimum distances for said at least two obstacles as bottlenecks, wherein each subsequent minimum distance does not intersect any bottleneck already designated.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein locating one or more bottlenecks, within said plurality of network grid elements further comprises:

(d) removing any bottlenecks that create areas only surrounded by bottlenecks;

(e) removing duplicate bottlenecks between said at least two obstacles; and

(f) removing bottlenecks that create small areas with respect to the size of said bottlenecks.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining said transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks is performed by a transmission flow control algorithm.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said transmission flow control algorithm is a max-min fair bottleneck flow control algorithm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein comparing said transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks to determine if any of said one or more bottlenecks are not real bottlenecks comprises:

(a) ordering said transmission flow rate information for said one or more bottlenecks based one or more predetermined criteria; and

(b) determining which bottlenecks have corresponding transmission flow rates that fall below a predetermined threshold.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein comparing said transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks to determine if any of said one or more bottlenecks are not real bottlenecks further comprises:

(c) determining whether the removal of any of said bottlenecks would result in said one or more network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted to enclose one or more network grid elements where wireless transmission is constricted.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein locating one or more network grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted comprises locating one or more network grid elements surrounded by at least said one or more obstacles and at least said one or more bottlenecks.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmission nodes located within said one or more network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted are modeled as one or more super-nodes.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more bottlenecks are modeled as one or more links between said one or more network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein control of admission to said mobile ad hoc wireless network is controlled locally at each of said super-nodes by one or more nodes designated as one or more group leaders.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said one or more group leaders are selected based on their proximity to a predetermined location in said super-node.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein said one or more group leaders are unselected when their distance from a predetermined location in said super-node exceeds a predetermined distance.

14. A system for modeling a mobile ad hoc wireless network for a predetermined geographical area, comprising:

a processor, a wireless connection device operatively coupled to the processor, and a memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing program instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to utilize the wireless connection device to:

divide said geographic area into a network grid including a plurality of network grid elements;

locate one or more obstacles, if any, to communication between transmission nodes located in at least two different grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements;

locate one or more bottlenecks, within said plurality of network grid elements;

locate one or more network grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted;

determine a transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks;

compare said transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks to determine if any of said one or more bottlenecks are not real bottlenecks; and

remove said one or more bottlenecks that are not real bottlenecks from said model.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein said determination of the transmission flow rate across said one or more bottlenecks is performed by a transmission flow control algorithm.

16. A method for determining the a route for one or more information packets to travel across a mobile ad hoc wireless network to avoid congestion in bottleneck areas, for a predetermined geographical area, comprising:

(a) dividing said geographic area into a network grid including a plurality of network grid elements;

(b) locating one or more obstacles, if any, to communication between transmission nodes located in at least two different grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements;

(c) locating one or more bottlenecks, within said plurality of network grid elements;

(d) locating one or more network grid elements from said plurality of network grid elements where wireless transmission is unconstricted; and

(e) applying a probabilistic geographic routing algorithm to find a grid-by-grid path for said one or more information packets to travel across;

wherein at least said applying is performed utilizing a processor operatively coupled to a memory.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein said probabilistic geographic routing algorithm operates in a geographic routing phase wherein packets of information are routed through anchor points, wherein said anchor points are located at said one or more bottlenecks.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein said probabilistic geographic routing algorithm operates in a probabilistic routing phase wherein packets of information are routed between anchor points, wherein said anchor points may be any of said one or more network grid elements located along said one or more bottlenecks.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein said probabilistic geographic routing algorithm operates in a probabilistic routing phase wherein packets of information are routed through anchor points, wherein said anchor points may be any of said one or more network grid elements located between said one or more bottlenecks.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein said probabilistic geographic routing algorithm operates to allow for four directional forwarding of packets of information.

21. The method of claim 16 , wherein said probabilistic geographic routing algorithm operates to allow for eight directional forwarding of packets of information.