Transportation dynamics on networks of mobile agents

TL;DR

This paper investigates transportation dynamics in mobile networks, revealing how throughput depends on agent speed and communication range, supported by a physical theory based on the Fokker-Planck equation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model for transportation on mobile networks and explains the observed phenomena with a theoretical framework, advancing understanding of dynamic network transport.

Findings

Throughput depends hierarchically on agent speed.

Power-law relationship between throughput and communication range.

Theoretical explanation using Fokker-Planck equation.

Abstract

Most existing works on transportation dynamics focus on networks of a fixed structure, but networks whose nodes are mobile have become widespread, such as cell-phone networks. We introduce a model to explore the basic physics of transportation on mobile networks. Of particular interest are the dependence of the throughput on the speed of agent movement and communication range. Our computations reveal a hierarchical dependence for the former while, for the latter, we find an algebraic power law between the throughput and the communication range with an exponent determined by the speed. We develop a physical theory based on the Fokker-Planck equation to explain these phenomena. Our findings provide insights into complex transportation dynamics arising commonly in natural and engineering systems.