Ad hoc networking systems are very popular these days, due to the increased interest in applications such as sensor networks and wireless ad hoc Internets. It remains, however, very hard to analyze and characterize their performance.

The authors of this book chapter provide an informative survey on the challenging field of wireless ad hoc network (WANET) performance analysis. An all-around picture is provided, with particular emphasis on capacity scaling, stochastic capacity, Bluetooth, and the transmission control protocol (TCP).

The survey chapter initially discusses WANET topology, spatial reuse, and connectivity. A scaling law is provided, showing that per node capacity scales poorly with the node number. In addition, the authors introduce a packet flow model of WANET, and show the dependency of network performance on the physical layer.

The survey continues with the performance of Bluetooth systems, discussing how the performance of a cluster of piconets degrades as the number of piconets increases in a given area. Finally, the survey concludes with a performance analysis of TCP over a single hop, and multihop TCP connections over WANETs, using simple examples.

The two authors survey a challenging research area--the performance analysis of wireless ad hoc networks--providing a very useful reading companion for researchers, engineers, and professionals in the field.