Transmit Power and Rate Control for Spatial Reuse in Dense Wireless LANs

Spatial reuse is an approach to better utilize the wireless medium in dense networks. In contrast to time multiplexed channel access, the idea is to allow a certain level of interference between parallel transmitting links. Depending on transmit power and rate settings, such parallel transmissions may result in increased overall system performance. This paper presents a systematic approach to model dense networks and optimize transmit power and rate settings for best total system performance. It discusses driving factors and limitations for spatial reuse. The paper introduces two algorithms for concurrent optimal transmit power and rate selection. System simulations using a fading channel model compare the performance of the algorithms against CSMA/CA. The simulation results show that average system performance can be increased by 100% and more.