Each node in a wireless multi-hop network can adjust the power level at which it transmits and thus change the topology of the network to save energy by choosing the neighbors with which it directly communicates. Many previous algorithms for distributed topology control have assumed an ability at each node to deduce some location-based information such as the direction and the distance of its neighbor nodes with respect to itself. Such a deduction of location-based information, however, cannot be relied upon in real environments where the path loss exponents vary greatly leading to significant errors in distance estimates. Also, multipath effects may result in different signal paths with different loss characteristics, and none of these paths may be line-of-sight, making it difficult to estimate the direction of a neighboring node. In this paper, we present Step Topology Control (STC), a simple distributed topology control algorithm which reduces energy consumption while preserving the connectivity of a heterogeneous sensor network without use of any location-based information. We show that the STC algorithm achieves the same or better order of communication and computational complexity when compared to other known algorithms that also preserve connectivity without the use of location-based information. We also present a detailed simulation-based comparative analysis of the energy savings and interference reduction achieved by the algorithms. The results show that, in spite of not incurring a higher communication or computational complexity, the STC algorithm performs better than other algorithms in uniform wireless environments and especially better when path loss characteristics are non-uniform.
Among other attempts to accommodate the irregularities of a real wireless environment in topology control are some that allow for uncertainties in whether or not a nearby node is reachable if the distance to that node is above a certain threshold @cite_3 @cite_15 . However, these algorithms assume that each node can know the distances to other nearby nodes, something that cannot be relied upon in a real environments with multipath effects. Some other works have also considered realistic wireless models but they have only presented centralized algorithms @cite_8 .
@cite_15 @cite_3 @cite_8
2003012549 2121101422 2435603672 2100977699
Each node in a wireless multi-hop network can adjust the power level at which it transmits and thus change the topology of the network to save energy by choosing the neighbors with which it directly communicates. Many previous algorithms for distributed topology control have assumed an ability at each node to deduce some location-based information such as the direction and the distance of its neighbor nodes with respect to itself. Such a deduction of location-based information, however, cannot be relied upon in real environments where the path loss exponents vary greatly leading to significant errors in distance estimates. Also, multipath effects may result in different signal paths with different loss characteristics, and none of these paths may be line-of-sight, making it difficult to estimate the direction of a neighboring node. In this paper, we present Step Topology Control (STC), a simple distributed topology control algorithm which reduces energy consumption while preserving the connectivity of a heterogeneous sensor network without use of any location-based information. The STC algorithm avoids the use of GPS devices and also makes no assumptions about the distance and direction between neighboring nodes. We show that the STC algorithm achieves the same or better order of communication and computational complexity when compared to other known algorithms that also preserve connectivity without the use of location-based information. We also present a detailed simulation-based comparative analysis of the energy savings and interference reduction achieved by the algorithms. The results show that, in spite of not incurring a higher communication or computational complexity, the STC algorithm performs better than other algorithms in uniform wireless environments and especially better when path loss characteristics are non-uniform. Among the foremost goals of topology control in wireless ad-hoc networks is interference reduction. This paper presents a receiver-centric interference model featuring two main advantages over previous work. First, it reflects the fact that interference occurs at the intended receiver of a message. Second, the presented interference measure is robust with respect to addition or removal of single network nodes. Regarding both of these aspects our model intuitively corresponds to the behavior of interference in reality. Based on this interference model, we show that currently known topology control algorithms poorly reduce interference. Motivated by the observation that already one-dimensional network instances display the intricacy of the considered problem, we continue to focus on the so-called highway model. Setting out to analyze the special case of the exponential node chain, we eventually describe an algorithm guaranteeing to achieve a spl I.nroot spl Delta -approximation (where n=4) of the optimal connectivity-preserving topology in the general highway model. In this paper, we address the following question: given a specific placement of wireless nodes in physical space and a specific traffic workload, what is the maximum throughput that can be supported by the resulting network? Unlike previous work that has focused on computing asymptotic performance bounds under assumptions of homogeneity or randomness in the network topology and or workload, we work with any given network and workload specified as inputs.A key issue impacting performance is wireless interference between neighboring nodes. We model such interference using a conflict graph, and present methods for computing upper and lower bounds on the optimal throughput for the given network and workload. To compute these bounds, we assume that packet transmissions at the individual nodes can be finely controlled and carefully scheduled by an omniscient and omnipotent central entity, which is unrealistic. Nevertheless, using ns-2 simulations, we show that the routes derived from our analysis often yield noticeably better throughput than the default shortest path routes even in the presence of uncoordinated packet transmissions and MAC contention. This suggests that there is opportunity for achieving throughput gains by employing an interference-aware routing protocol. Most existing topology control algorithms assume homogeneous wireless networks with uniform maximal transmission power, and cannot be directly applied to heterogeneous wireless networks where the maximal transmission power of each node may be different. We present two localized topology control algorithms for heterogeneous networks: Directed Relative Neighborhood Graph (DRNG) and Directed Local Spanning Subgraph (DLSS). In both algorithms, each node independently builds its neighbor set by adjusting the transmission power, and defines the network topology by using only local information. We prove that: 1) both DRNG and DLSS can preserve network connectivity; 2) the out-degree of any node in the resulting topology generated by DRNG or DLSS is bounded by a constant; and 3) DRNG and DLSS can preserve network bi-directionality. Simulation results indicate that DRNG and DLSS significantly outperform existing topology control algorithms for heterogeneous networks in several aspects.