The Factor K: Inferring Protocol Performance Using Inter-Link Reception Correlation

This paper explores metrics that capture to what degree packet reception on different links is correlated. It shows that a widely used metric is a bad measure and presents normalized cross correlation index as a new metric. The authors call this new metric K (kappa). Measuring K sheds light on when and why opportunistic routing and coding protocols perform well (or badly) in a network. K shows a direct correlation to the performance of opportunistic routing protocols like ExOR.