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We present a distributed stable protocol for local broadcast in multi-hop wireless networks, where packets are injected to the nodes continuously, and each node needs to quickly disseminate the injected packets to all its neighbors within a given communication range $R$. We investigate the maximum packet injection rate and the minimum packet latency that can be achieved in a stable protocol. This paper assumes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) interference model, which reflects more accurately the physical characteristics of the wireless interference, such as fading and signal accumulation, than conventional local interference models, e.g., graph-based models. More specifically, we present a stable protocol that can handle both stochastic and adversarial injection patterns. The protocol is asymptotically optimal in terms of both injection rate and packet latency. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first one studying the properties of stable protocols for the basic primitive of local broadcast in a multi-hop setting under SINR. Our proposed protocol utilizes a static local broadcast algorithm as a subroutine. This static algorithm is of independent interest, and it closes the $O(\log n)$ gap between the upper and lower bounds for static local broadcast. Simulation results indicate that our proposed algorithms can perform well in realistic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel approach to assess the performance in terms of end-to-end throughput of an ad hoc multi-hop wireless network, where each link is affected by interference coming from other multi-hop paths nearby. The approach captures the mutual impact of each path on all others. It can be applied to both, contention-based and scheduled, medium access control (MAC) protocols. Sources have data to send to destination nodes through $n$ relays. Nodes are assumed to be uniformly and randomly distributed in the 2-D infinite plane. The model shows the impact on the end-to-end throughput of $n$ ; it also captures the influence of node density, traffic generated, number of retransmissions, and other MAC parameters. Finally, the model provides the throughput-delay tradeoff. Unlike most previous approaches, the mathematical tool proposed appears to be scalable, allowing easy extension to any number of hops. Comparison with simulation results is provided to prove that the impact of the approximations introduced in the analysis is almost negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There have been some rapid advances on the design of full duplex (FD) transceivers in recent years. Although the benefits of FD have been studied for single-hop wireless communications, its potential on throughput performance in a multi-hop wireless network remains unclear. As for multi-hop networks, a fundamental problem is to compute the achievable end-to-end throughput for one or multiple communication sessions. The goal of this paper is to offer some fundamental understanding on end-to-end throughput performance limits of FD in a multi-hop wireless network. We show that through a rigorous mathematical formulation, we can cast the multi-hop throughput performance problem into a formal optimization problem. Through numerical results, we show that in many cases, the end-to-end session throughput in a FD network can exceed $2 \times$ of that in a half duplex (HD) network. Our finding can be explained by the much larger design space for scheduling that is offered by removing HD constraints in throughput maximization problem. The results in this paper offer some new understandings on the potential benefits of FD for end-to-end session throughput in a multi-hop wireless network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, multiple concurrent transmission techniques have been proposed for smartly exploiting interference to improve network throughput. This paper considers zero-forcing (ZF) precoding that allows two interfering links to concurrently transmit under certain situations. This paper focuses on identifying appropriate schedule schemes that efficiently utilize the ZF precoding opportunities to improve network throughput. With this motivation, we define novel link models to formulate our concerned problem. We also develop a distributed scheduling algorithm by using belief propagation. Finally, we conduct extensive simulation experiments to evaluate the efficiency of ZF in improving network throughput in multihop wireless networks. Our simulations confirm that intelligently utilizing ZF in multihop networks is very effective in improving throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Millimeter Wave (mmWave) communications are evolving as a potential and promising technology to address the ever increasing mobile data rate requirements. This paper addresses fair scheduling in directional antenna based mmWave wireless personal and local area networks with non-uniform traffic demand. Due to their small wavelength, mmWave signals are susceptible to blockage. The proposed fair schedulers handle the link blockage problem through relaying, and are capable of providing end-to-end fair bandwidth allocation to relay flows. To achieve differentiated and fair service allocation to various regions of the network while using only limited flow related information, a service tag based scheduler is proposed in this paper. Then, the performance bounds on the minimum throughput and unfairness of this scheduler are obtained. To approximate the performance of the service tag based scheduler while minimizing the control overhead, a heuristic fair scheduler is also proposed. Results from extensive simulations conducted in a mmWave WPAN deployed to support high data rate applications show the performance advantages of the proposed schedulers, compared to existing fair schedulers, in terms of throughput and fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater acoustic (UWA) networks are a key form of communications for human exploration and activities in the oceanographic space of the earth. A fundamental issue of UWA communications is large propagation delays due to water medium, which has posed a grand challenge in UWA network protocol design. Conventional wisdom of addressing this issue is to live with this disadvantage by inserting a guard interval to introduce immunity to propagation delays. Recent advances in interference alignment (IA) open up a new direction to address this issue and promise a great potential to improve network throughput by exploiting large propagation delays. In this paper, we investigate propagation delay-based IA (PD-IA) in multi-hop UWA networks. We first develop a set of simple constraints to characterize PD-IA feasible region at the physical layer. Based on the set of PD-IA constraints, we develop a distributed PD-IA scheduling algorithm to greedily maximize interference overlapping possibilities in a multi-hop UWA network. Simulation results show that the proposed PD-IA algorithm yields higher throughput than an idealized benchmark algorithm without propagation delays, indicating that large propagation delays are not adversarial but beneficial for network throughput performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider random-access wireless multihop networks, with multipacket reception capabilities, where multiple flows are forwarded to the gateways through node disjoint paths. We explore the issue of allocating flow on multiple paths, exhibiting both intra- and interpath interference, in order to maximize average aggregate flow throughput (AAT) and provide bounded packet delay. A distributed flow allocation scheme is proposed where allocation of flow on paths is formulated as an optimization problem. Through an illustrative topology, it is shown that the corresponding problem is nonconvex. Furthermore, a simple but accurate model is employed for the AAT achieved by all flows, which captures both intra- and interpath interference through the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) model. The proposed scheme is evaluated through Ns2 simulations of several random wireless scenarios. Simulation results reveal that the model employed accurately captures the AAT observed in the simulated scenarios, even when the assumption of saturated queues is removed. Simulation results also show that the proposed scheme achieves significantly higher AAT for the vast majority of the wireless scenarios explored than for the following flow allocation schemes: one that assigns flows on paths on a round-robin fashion, one that optimally utilizes the best path (BP) only, and another one that assigns the maximum possible flow on each path. Finally, a variant of the proposed scheme is explored, where interference for each link is approximated by considering its dominant interfering nodes only. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Denial-of-service attacks launched by malicious jammers can pose significant threats to infrastructure-less wireless networks without a centralized controller. While significant recent research efforts have dealt with such attacks and several possible countermeasures have been proposed, little attention has been paid to the idea of cooperative anti-jamming. Inspired by this observation, this paper proposes and studies a cooperative anti-jamming scheme designed to enhance the quality of links degraded by jammers. To achieve this objective, users are allowed to cooperate at two levels. First, they cooperate to optimally regulate their channel access probabilities, so that jammed users gain a higher share of channel utilization. Second, users leverage multiple-input single-output cooperative communication techniques to enhance the throughput of jammed links. The problem of optimal cooperative anti-jamming is formulated as a distributed pricing-based optimization problem, and a best-response algorithm is proposed to solve it in a distributed way. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves considerable gains (compared with traditional non-cooperative anti-jamming) especially under heavy traffic or high jamming power. Furthermore, the proposed distributed algorithm is shown to achieve close-to-global optimality with moderate traffic load. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the coexistence of heterogeneous multi-hop networks, which use different physical-layer technologies. We propose a new paradigm, called cooperative interference mitigation (CIM), which exploits recent advancement in interference cancellation (IC), such as technology-independent multiple output. CIM makes it possible for disparate networks to cooperatively mitigate the interference to/from each other to enhance everyone’s performance. We first show the feasibility of CIM among heterogeneous multi-hop networks by exploiting only channel-ratio information. Then, we establish two tractable models to characterize the CIM behaviors of both networks by using full IC and receiver-side IC only. We propose two bi-criteria optimization problems aiming at maximizing both networks’ throughput, while cooperatively canceling the interference between them based on our two models. Several simulations are carried out to compare the Pareto-optimal throughput curves by using our CIM paradigms and traditional interference-avoidance (IAV) paradigm. By comparing the results from CIM and IAV, we show that CIM could remarkably improve the coexisting networks’ throughput in different network settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, degree-of-freedom (DoF)-based models have been widely used to study MIMO network performance. Existing DoF-based models differ in their interference cancellation (IC) behavior and many of them suffer from either loss of solution space or possible infeasible solutions. To overcome these limitations, a new DoF-based model, which employs an IC scheme based on node-ordering was proposed. In this paper, we apply this new DoF IC model to study a throughput maximization problem in a multihop MIMO network. The problem formulation involves joint consideration of flow routing and DoF allocation and falls in the form of a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). Our main contribution is an efficient polynomial time algorithm that offers a competitive solution to the MILP through a series of linear programs (LPs). The algorithm employs a sequential fixing framework to obtain an initial feasible solution and then improves the solution by exploiting: 1) the impact of node ordering on DoF consumption for IC at a node and 2) route diversity in the network. Simulation results show that the solutions obtained by our proposed algorithm are competitive and feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The optimum designs of multihop networks operating in an interference-limited environment are studied in this paper. The objective is to identify the optimum operation parameters that can maximize the end-to-end throughput of a multihop link in the network. The optimum designs are performed with respect to two parameters, the number of hops, and the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) threshold for successful transmission. Under a fixed total transmission power, more hops means shorter distance for each hop, but also less power per hop and longer delays. A higher SIR threshold can achieve a higher throughput by employing high-order modulations, but at the cost of a higher outage probability. We capture these tradeoff relationships by deriving the throughput, which is expressed as an explicit function of a number of system parameters. It is shown through theoretical analysis that the throughput is quasi-concave in the number of hops or the SIR threshold, and the optimum design parameters that can maximize the throughput are obtained analytically and verified through simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interference neutralization (IN) is regarded as a promising interference management techniques for multi-hop wireless networks. Yet most existing results of IN are limited to two-hop networks such as the relay-aided cellular network. Little progress has been made so far in the exploration of IN in generic multi-hop (more than two hops) networks. This paper aims to bridge this gap by developing an optimization framework for IN in a generic multi-hop network with the objective of maximizing the end-to-end throughput of multiple coexisting communication sessions. We first derive a mathematical model for IN in a special one-hop network to characterize the capability of IN, and then generalize this model to a multi-hop network. Based on the IN model, we develop a cross-layer optimization framework for a multi-hop network with the objective of fully translating the benefits of IN to the end-to-end throughput of the multi-hop sessions. To evaluate the performance of IN in multi-hop networks, we compare its performance against the case where IN is not employed. Simulation results show that the use of IN can significantly (more than 50%) increase the session throughput and, more notably, the throughput gain of IN increases with the node density and traffic intensity in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While considerable work has addressed the optimal AoI under different circumstances in single-hop networks, the exploration of AoI in multi-hop wireless networks is rarely attempted. More importantly, the inherent relationships between AoI and throughput are yet to be explored, especially in multi-hop networks. This paper studies AoI in multi-hop wireless networks and explores its potential relationships with throughput for the very first time, particularly focusing on the impacts of flexible routes on the two metrics, i.e., AoI and throughput. By developing a rigorous mathematical model with interference, channel allocation, link scheduling, and routing path selection taken into consideration, we build the interrelation between AoI and throughput in multi-hop networks. A multi-criteria optimization problem is formulated with the goal of simultaneously minimizing AoI and maximizing network throughput. By qualitatively analyzing their relationships, we exhibit that the two metrics may conflict with each other, implying the optimal solutions for the multi-criteria problem will include a set of Pareto-optimal points rather than a single point existing in the traditional optimization problem. We resort to a novel approach by transforming the multi-criteria problem into a single objective one so as to find the weakly Pareto-optimal points iteratively, thereby allowing us to screen all Pareto-optimal points for the solution. Through formal proof, our solution is demonstrated to be able to identify all Pareto-optimal points and terminate in a finite number of iterations. We conduct the simulation evaluation to identify the optimal tradeoff points of AoI and throughput, demonstrating that one performance metric may improve at the expense of degrading the other, with the routing path found as one of the key factors in determining such a tradeoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being readily available in most of 802.11 radios, multirate capability appears to be useful as WiFi networks are getting more prevalent and crowded. More specifically, it would be helpful in high-density scenarios because internode distance is short enough to employ high data rates. However, communication at high data rates mandates a large number of hops for a given node pair in a multihop network and thus, can easily be depreciated as per-hop overhead at several layers of network protocol is aggregated over the increased number of hops. This paper presents a novel multihop, multirate adaptation mechanism, called multihop transmission opportunity (MTOP), that allows a frame to be forwarded a number of hops consecutively to minimize the MAC-layer overhead between hops. This seemingly collision-prone nonstop forwarding is proved to be safe via analysis and USRP/GNU Radio-based experiment in this paper. The idea of MTOP is in clear contrast to the conventional opportunistic transmission mechanism, known as TXOP, where a node transmits multiple frames back-to-back when it gets an opportunity in a single-hop WLAN. We conducted an extensive simulation study via OPNET, demonstrating the performance advantage of MTOP under a wide range of network scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

D2D communications are considered as effective means to achieve vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, which can be used to improve the performance in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). In this paper, we investigate the resource allocation and interference management based on clustering mechanism in the D2D communications under-laying VANETs aiming to optimize resource utilization efficiency. Firstly, given the transmission resources of intra-cluster for D2D communications, we design a vehicle clustering algorithm to improve intra-cluster resource efficiency and nullify the intra-cluster interference. Secondly, by analyzing the wireless service in VANETs, a cooperative communication scheme with optimized resource utilization is proposed to maximize intra-cluster spectral efficiency. Thirdly, when uplink spectrums are shared, an interference neutralization (IN) model is developed to manage inter-cluster interference, while each vehicle is equipped with one antenna and there is no extra antenna for interference cancellation. In accordance with the IN model, a cross-layer optimization frame for multi-hop VANETs is proposed to maximize the end-to-end throughput of multiple coexisting communication sessions. To evaluate the performance, we select the method without cooperative communication and IN as a benchmark and compare it against the method with cooperative communication only and the method with both cooperative communication and IN. The simulation results show that the method that uses cooperative communication and IN can dramatically increase the throughput. Furthermore, the throughput gains increase along with vehicle density growing in VANETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation has become an essential element in spectrum sharing between the primary and secondary networks. A new trend in cooperation is to allow the primary and secondary networks to cooperate on the node level for data forwarding. This new paradigm allows to pool network resources from both the primary and secondary networks and allows users in each network to access a much richer network infrastructure in a combined network. This paper offers an in-depth study of such node-level cooperation by explaining its optimal throughput curve—the maximum achievable throughput for both the primary and secondary users. We formulate the problem as a multicriteria optimization problem with the goal of maximizing the throughput of both the primary and secondary users. Through a novel approach based on weighted Chebyshev norm, we transform the multicriteria optimization problem into a single criteria optimization problem and find a sequence of Pareto-optimal points iteratively. Based on the Pareto-optimal points, we construct the throughput curve and show that it provides an $\varepsilon $ -approximation to the optimal curve. We prove some important properties of the optimal throughput curve. Through a case study, we show that the throughput region (the area under the throughput curve) under node-level cooperation is substantially larger than that when there is no node-level cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous works on multicast capacity mainly focus on deriving asymptotic order results in large-scale wireless networks. While they can explore the general scaling laws of throughput capacity, it is also of great interest for practical concern to predict the exact achievable throughput in networks with an arbitrary finite number of nodes. In this paper, we investigate the nonasymptotic throughput and delay of multihop wireless networks for multicast applications wherein for each source node, $k$ nodes are randomly selected as receivers. It is challenging for the exact performance analysis since multicast transmission has a dynamic nature due to the following factors: 1) random distribution of nodes; 2) bursty traffic arrivals; and 3) different timescales for transient analysis. To tackle the problem, we propose an explicit analytical model and develop a multicast routing scheme, which accounts for these aspects. With our proposed model, we derive lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) on nonasymptotic multicast throughput and delay using stochastic network calculus. We show that the performance results hold for all timescales and network sizes and are strongly correlated to data burstiness and the number of receivers. While we investigate from a nonasymptotic point of view, our results can also cover the asymptotic scaling laws. Simulations are conducted to further verify the accuracy of the analytical bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity scaling laws of two overlaid networks are investigated, which are located in the same area sharing the same wireless resources with different priorities. The primary network can be regarded as an existing communication system operated in a licensed band and, therefore, is assumed to operate in an order-optimal fashion to achieve its standalone capacity scaling law. The secondary cognitive network must keep its interference to the primary network below a certain threshold while at the same time maximizing its own throughput scaling law based on cognition information. The existing scaling results for cognitive networks inherently assume multihop communication, which is a restricted coding model. By contrast, in this paper, a general coding model is considered without any specific physical layer coding assumptions. The capacity scaling exponents for both networks are analyzed when the numbers of primary nodes n , primary base stations l , which support the communication between primary nodes, and secondary nodes m increase with the relations , \beta >1 , and l=n^\gamma , 0\leq \gamma \leq 1 . For the extended network model, the capacity scaling exponents are completely characterized as \max \2-\alpha /2,1/2,\gamma \ and \max \2-\alpha /2,1/2\ for the primary and secondary networks respectively, where \alpha >2 denotes the path-loss exponent. That is, the capacity scaling laws for the primary and secondary networks are represented, respectively, by n^{\max \{2-\alpha /2,1/2,\gamma \}\pm \epsilon } and m^{\max \{2-\alpha /2,1/2\}\pm \epsilon }$ for \epsilon >0$ arbitrarily small. For the dense network model, when the primary network achieves its standalone capacity scaling exponent of 1, the secondary network is shown to achieve a scaling exponent of 1-{1}/({2\beta }) , which improves the previous scaling exponent of 1/2 achieved by multihop. For both models, it turns out that the conventional multihop approach is in general quite suboptimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Opportunistic Large Array (OLA) is one type of cooperative transmission, which provides fast and reliable broadcasts and unicasts in multi-hop networks. While the existing literature on OLAs assumes one-shot transmission with a single packet, we analyze multi-packet OLA transmission within a single flow along strip-shaped networks or OLA-based cooperative routes. When multiple packets are transmitted from the same source using the same channel before the previous packet has cleared the network, which is called spatial pipelining, intra-flow interference is produced by OLAs transmitting co-channel packets. Using the continuum assumption (approximated by high density networks), the authors optimize the throughput. This paper theoretically shows spatial pipelining over strip networks is always feasible for path loss exponent α≥2, which is not true for disk-shaped networks. Moreover, the impacts of system parameters are analyzed, and the upper bound of the optimal packet spacing (the lower bound of the optimal throughput) is derived. Also, spatial pipelining in finite networks is studied with numerical results, which confirm the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cellular third—generation wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) systems must meet interference constraints to maintain coverage when uplink traffic is scheduled. The interference constraints can be expressed in the form of load factor constraints but current scheduling algorithms are typically not formulated in terms of these variables. The current paper shows how a cost function for the scheduling problem can be expressed directly in terms of load factors. A near optimal solution is developed for the resulting problem. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces models and a system for designing 802.11 wireless LANs (WLANs) using flexible channelization— the choice of an appropriate channel width and center frequency for each transmission. In contrast to current 802.11 systems that use fixed width channels, the proposed system, FLUID, configures all access points and their clients using flexible channels. We show that a key challenge in designing such a system stems from managing the effects of interference due to multiple transmitters employing variable channel widths, in a network-wide setting. We implemented FLUID in an enterprise-like setup using a 50 node testbed (with off-the shelf wireless cards) and we show that FLUID improves the average throughput by 59 percent across all PHY rates, compared to existing fixed-width approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In multihop ad hoc networks over 802.11, the real bandwidth-delay product (BDP) cannot reach a value as large as in wired networks due to contention through wireless shared channels. As a result, conventional congestion-control algorithms cause an overshooting window problem and result in poor throughput in ad hoc networks. In this paper, we split the real round-trip time (RTT) into two parts: 1) congestion RTT and 2) contention RTT. We reveal that the contention RTT has nothing to do with the BDP and that the BDP is determined by only the congestion RTT if a link with the worst contention status does not lead to link breakage. An inadequate use of contention RTT causes a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) congestion window overshooting problem. We propose a novel mechanism called congestion window adaptation through contention detection, which provides a more accurate method of estimating the contention status. Based on this mechanism, we present a congestion window adaptation method to limit the window size from overshooting. Simulation results show that our proposed mechanism outperforms the conventional TCP and the enhanced mechanisms called TCP with contention control and TCP with a maximum window. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, a new MIMO degree-of-freedom (DoF) model was proposed to allocate DoF resources for spatial multiplexing (SM) and interference cancellation (IC) in a multi-hop network. Although this DoF model promises many benefits, it hinges upon a global node ordering to keep track of IC responsibilities among all the nodes. An open question about this model is whether its global ordering property can be achieved among the nodes in the network through distributed operations. In this paper, we explore this question by studying DoF scheduling in a multi-hop MIMO network, with the objective of maximizing the minimum throughput among a set of sessions. We propose an efficient DoF scheduling algorithm to solve it and show that our algorithm only requires local operations. We prove that the resulting DoF scheduling solution is globally feasible and show that there exists a corresponding feasible global node ordering for IC, albeit such global ordering is implicit. Simulation results show that the solution values obtained by our algorithm are relatively close to the upper bound values computed by CPLEX solver, thereby indicating that our algorithm is highly competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cognitive radio (CR) technology opens the licensed spectrum bands for opportunistic usage and initiates spectrum trading to improve the spectrum utilization. In this paper, we investigate the path selection problem in multihop cognitive radio networks (CRNs) under constraints on flow routing, link scheduling and CR source's budget. We extend the per-user-based spectrum trading in prior work to CR session-based spectrum trading, and effectively develop the spectrum trading mechanisms based on the cross-layer optimization in multihop CRNs. We introduce a new service provider, called secondary service provider (SSP), to help CR sessions to select the paths for packet delivery. Considering the price of bands and the potential returning of primary services at different CR links, the SSP purchases the licensed spectrum and jointly conducts flow routing and link scheduling under the budget constraints. We also propose a 4D conflict graph to characterize the conflict relationship among CR links and mathematically formulate the path selection problem under multiple constraints into an optimization problem with the objective of maximizing the end-to-end throughput. Due to the NP-hardness of the problem, we have also developed a heuristic algorithm to find the approximate solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose two cross-layer algorithms, namely, the Power-optimal Scheduling Algorithm (PSA) and the Throughput-optimal Scheduling Algorithm (TSA), to minimize energy consumption and to maximize throughput, respectively, in multihop wireless networks. Our algorithms guarantee a flow-based minimum data rate and jointly integrate congestion control, power allocation, routing, and link rate scheduling. Different from traditional algorithms that assume infinite buffers, the proposed algorithms deterministically upper bound the flow-based packet queue length and thus can be employed in multihop networks with finite buffers. In addition, the algorithms achieve a power expenditure/throughput “\epsilon-close” to the optimal value, with a tradeoff of order O(\1/\epsilon) in buffer size. The average end-to-end delay upper bound can also be derived from the finite buffer property. Finally, numerical results are presented to show the performance of the two algorithms with different system parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interference alignment (IA) is widely regarded as a promising interference management technique for wireless networks and its potential is most profound in interference-intensive environments. This motivates us to study IA for multicast communications in multihop MIMO networks, which are rich in interference by nature. We develop a set of linear constraints that can characterize a feasible design space of IA for multicast communications. The set of linear constraints constitutes a simple mathematical model of IA that allows us to conduct cross-layer multicast throughput optimization in multihop MIMO networks, but without getting involved into the onerous signal design at the physical layer. Based on the mathematical model of IA, we formulate a multicast throughput maximization problem and develop an approximation solution that can achieve $(1-\varepsilon)$ -optimality. Simulation results show that the use of IA can significantly increase the multicast throughput in multihop MIMO networks and the throughput gain increases with the volume of multicast traffic and the number of antennas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging applications in areas such as advanced manufacturing and healthcare systems demand predictable delivery of prioritized message streams over multihop wireless systems. The dominance protocol is an important approach in which transmitting nodes use priority identifiers to dynamically regulate access to the shared medium. This protocol, however, has an unresolved problem called the Multihop Competing Problem (MCP). Despite recognizing that the problem could occur, the current literature offers no characterization of the problem or when it can occur. Because MCP could occur, it was not possible to analytically determine the end-to-end latency bounds of the message streams. When MCP occurred, the end-to-end latency of the message streams was affected adversely. We characterize MCP and show that it is an exposed terminal problem that occurs when the nodes use certain priority identifiers in adjacent two-hop neighborhoods of a transmitting node. Using a random disk graph model, we show that MCP occurs often in such systems. We utilize our characterization of MCP to derive priority identifiers that guarantee that MCP will not occur. The MCP free labels propose enable the predictable delivery of multihop message streams, improve end-to-end latency of the streams, and improve throughput in well-engineered and ad hoc networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This work is an offline study to characterize the performance of cooperative relaying in interference-limited multihop networks, where nodes are equipped with multi-rate and continuous power control capabilities. We formulate a cross-layer flow-based framework to obtain the achievable throughput rates by jointly optimizing the parameters for multi-path routing, scheduling, rates, transmit powers, and selection of cooperative nodes. This framework is generic in that it is not restricted to any particular cooperative combining technique or type of network architecture. To take continuous power control into account, we introduce a non-trivial power allocation subproblem while keeping the main cross-layer framework as a linear program. We solve the problem optimally to obtain the max–min throughput for the case when cooperation is based on the distributed Alamouti code and networks have a mesh-like topology. We derive a number of practical engineering insights based on our numerical optimal results obtained for small-to-medium-sized random networks. In particular, we establish that the use of cooperative relaying in a small-to-medium-sized random mesh network often does not yield significant performance gains in throughput and connectivity even when multi-rate and continuous power control capabilities are available at the nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Uncoordinated random access (URA) wireless communication schemes provide an attractive framework to enable the necessary communication backbone for the advancement of dense sensor systems, many sensors deployed in a relatively small area. By itself, URA is unsuitable for moderately dense networks due to the crippling levels of interference that result from within the communication network. Digital beamforming has been proposed to alleviate intra-URA-network interference with a post-reception formation of multiple simultaneous beams that allow a single receiver to “hear” only the transmissions meant for it and to block out all others. A high density network can result in interference originating from the same direction which cannot be mitigated with beamforming. We propose the addition of post-beamformed multiuser detection (MUD) with the use of direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) waveforms to help further combat the interference problem. Motivated by practical design choices such as transceiver weight and size as well as operational expectations of variable and/or evolving node densities, we explore trades between the DSSS time-spreading factor, number of antennas per node, and network node density. Our results show throughput improvements with the addition of MUD, while the most improvements are with the addition of MUD paired with an appropriate choice of spreading factor. Insights from these results provide guidelines for the development of future systems not only aided by MUD and beamforming, but also by on-the-fly adaptation of the DSSS signature waveform time-spreading factor to mitigate the level of interference present at any time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many marine scientific, industrial, and military applications may require the deployment of underwater acoustic sensor networks for sensing and monitoring. A grid topology with multihop relaying is useful for wide area coverage as well as long distance data transmission. We investigate network architectures where data originate at one end of the grid, and are forwarded along multiple lines. We are particularly interested in transmission schedules that maximize network throughput by exploiting propagation delay to allow multiple simultaneous transmissions. We show that an optimal schedule is necessarily per-node fair, and derive the upper bound on throughput. Furthermore, we present a low-complexity algorithm to find schedules achieving the upper bound, regardless of the size of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Broadcasting is an important function in wireless networks. Ensuring broadcast efficiency and reliability with low communication overhead is challenging, especially with error-prone links. In this letter, we employ erasure coding together with topology-transparent scheduling as a coded transmission strategy in the MAC (Medium Access Control) layer rather than the physical layer to combat collisions and channel errors, implementing an efficient and reliable broadcast algorithm in wireless networks without introducing any additional communication overhead. We achieve the optimal frame structure that maximizes the average network throughput, and investigate the performance of our proposed algorithm in terms of the average network throughput and the packet failure probability. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm with erasure coding outperforms other existing topology-transparent broadcast algorithms and the conventional TDMA dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We analyze the performance of an interference-aware opportunistic relay selection protocol for multi-hop line networks which is based on the following simple rule: a node always transmits if it has a packet, except when its successive node on the line is transmitting. We derive analytically the saturation throughput and the end-to-end delay for two and three hop networks, and present simulation results for higher numbers of hops. In the case of three hops, we determine the throughput-optimal relay positions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An opportunistic spectrum sharing scheme for a pair of secondary users co-existing with a pair of primary users is proposed in this letter. The primary user is considered to exploit the limited feedback of channel quality information (CQI) to allocate its transmission power and rate. By overhearing the limited feedback of the primary CQI, the secondary user accesses the channel with proper transmission power and rate while causing interference to the primary user. Under the primary rate loss constraint, the optimal transmit power and transmission rate for the secondary is obtained to maximize the secondary user throughput. Numerical results show that, with only 3 or 4 bits of feedback, the effective throughput of the secondary user is comparable to the case when both primary and secondary transmitters have the perfect CQI of the primary link. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]