A feedback control scheme for resource allocation in wireless multi-hop ad hoc networks

Abstract

We present a new feedback control scheme for resource allocation in wireless ad hoc environment. The congestion measure on a wireless link is symbolized as a virtual price, which depends on the recent history of wireless node's queue size. The aggregate price along a route is the feedback to control the transmission rate at the source. In this way, the transmission rate adjustment will dynamically achieve efficient resource allocation, and make the queue size on wireless links stabilize around desired equilibrium. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can not only help allocate bandwidth fairly, but also achieve the goal of optimal sharing the channel capacity among multi-hop flows.