In mathematics and telecommunications, stochastic geometry models of wireless networks refer to mathematical models based on stochastic geometry that are designed to represent aspects of wireless networks. The related research consists of analyzing these models with the aim of better understanding wireless communication networks in order to predict and control various network performance metrics. The models require using techniques from stochastic geometry and related fields including point processes, spatial statistics, geometric probability, percolation theory, as well as methods from more general mathematical disciplines such as geometry, probability theory, stochastic processes, queueing theory, information theory, and Fourier analysis.[1][2][3][4]
In the early 1960s a stochastic geometry model[5] was developed to study wireless networks. This model is considered to be pioneering and the origin of continuum percolation.[6] Network models based on geometric probability were later proposed and used in the late 1970s[7] and continued throughout the 1980s[8][9] for examining packet radio networks. Later their use increased significantly for studying a number of wireless network technologies including mobile ad hoc networks, sensor networks, vehicular ad hoc networks, cognitive radio networks and several types of cellular networks, such as heterogeneous cellular networks.[10][11][12] Key performance and quality of service quantities are often based on concepts from information theory such as the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, which forms the mathematical basis for defining network connectivity and coverage.[4][11]
The principal idea underlying the research of these stochastic geometry models, also known as random spatial models,[10] is that it is best to assume that the locations of nodes or the network structure and the aforementioned quantities are random in nature due to the size and unpredictability of users in wireless networks. The use of stochastic geometry can then allow for the derivation of closed-form or semi-closed-form expressions for these quantities without resorting to simulation methods or (possibly intractable or inaccurate) deterministic models.[10]