Survivability Evaluation Metrics for Drone-Based Ad-Hoc Networks

This study quantitatively evaluates the survivability of drone-based Ad-hoc networks under external threat environments such as jamming attacks. To overcome the limitations of prior research that primarily focused on performance optimization, we propose resilience and sustainability as the core evaluation metrics of network survivability. Through simulation-based comparative analysis, we examined a scenario applying Ad-hoc networking against a baseline scenario without it. The results demonstrate that, while the baseline network exhibited persistent performance degradation under jamming attacks, the Ad-hoc network achieved remarkable recovery. Specifically, although the connectivity ratio (CR) temporarily dropped to 0.60 immediately after the attack, it rapidly increased to 0.99 within four seconds after the attack ended, thereby validating its outstanding resilience. Furthermore, during the attack period, the Ad-hoc network exhibited an average packet delay of 122.289 ms, approximately 15.7% lower than the baseline value of 145.139 ms, confirming superior sustainability in maintaining mission data flows. These findings provide quantitative evidence that Ad-hoc networks offer not only improved performance but also a critical technical solution for ensuring mission continuity under electronic warfare threats such as jamming.