Topology Control for Throughput Optimization in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the problem of topology control by joint power control and routing to maximize the network throughput in wireless mesh networks. First, we present two mathematical formulations of the joint power control and routing problem according to two different definitions of network throughput: the total throughput and the minimal per-node throughput. To reduce the computation cost, we next decompose this joint problem into two sub-problems: the power control sub-problem and the routing sub-problem. For the first sub-problem, we design two heuristic algorithms to assign transmission powers to mesh routers, such that the total interference or the maximum node interference in the network is minimized. For the routing sub-problem, we design two linear programming formulations to maximize the total throughput or the minimal per-node throughput. Simulation results reveal the following relationship: the topology with minimum total interference has higher total throughput, while the topology with minimum maximal node interference has higher minimal per-node throughput. This can server as a guidance for network design to satisfy different throughput considerations.