Adaptive Frequency Hopping in Ad Hoc Networks with Rayleigh Fading and Imperfect Sensing

A probabilistic model for adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) based wireless ad hoc networks with Rayleigh fading, where interference is due to self- and to slow-varying external interference, is proposed. Different AFH sensing techniques are studied in terms of area spectral efficiency (ASE) and it is shown that self-interference can have a negative effect on the AFH mechanism. In particular, packet error rate and received signal strength sensing suffer when self-interference is high, while carrier detection based sensing remains robust. The proposed model further offers powerful means for system optimization.