Closing the Gap in the Capacity of Wireless Networks Via Percolation Theory

An achievable bit rate per source-destination pair in a wireless network of n randomly located nodes is determined adopting the scaling limit approach of statistical physics. It is shown that randomly scattered nodes can achieve, with high probability, the same 1/radicn transmission rate of arbitrarily located nodes. This contrasts with previous results suggesting that a 1/radicnlogn reduced rate is the price to pay for the randomness due to the location of the nodes. The network operation strategy to achieve the result corresponds to the transition region between order and disorder of an underlying percolation model. If nodes are allowed to transmit over large distances, then paths of connected nodes that…