Topology control algorithms allow each node in a wireless multi-hop network to adjust the power at which it makes its transmissions and choose the set of neighbors with which it communicates directly, while preserving global goals such as connectivity or coverage. This allows each node to conserve energy and contribute to increasing the lifetime of the network. In this paper, in contrast to most previous work, we consider (i) both the energy costs of communication as well as the amount of available energy at each node, (ii) the realistic situation of varying rates of energy consumption at different nodes, and (iii) the fact that co-operation between nodes, where some nodes make a sacrifice by increasing energy consumption to help other nodes reduce their consumption, can be used to extend network lifetime. This paper introduces a new distributed topology control algorithm, called the Cooperative Topology Control with Adaptation (CTCA), based on a game-theoretic approach that maps the problem of maximizing the network's lifetime into an ordinal potential game. We prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium for the game. Our simulation results indicate that the CTCA algorithm extends the life of a network by more than 50 compared to the best previously-known algorithm. We also study the performance of the distributed CTCA algorithm in comparison to an optimal centralized algorithm as a function of the communication ranges of nodes and node density.
High throughput and lifetime are both crucial design objectives for a number of multihop wireless network applications. As these two objectives are often in conflict with each other, it naturally becomes important to identify the trade-offs between them. Several works in the literature have focused on improving one or the other, but investigating the trade-off between throughput and lifetime has received relatively less attention. We study this trade-off between the network throughput and lifetime for the case of fixed wireless networks, where link transmissions are coordinated to be conflict-free. We employ a realistic interference model based on the Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR), which is usually considered statistically sufficient to infer success or failure of wireless transmissions. Our analytical and numerical results provide several insights into the interplay between throughput, lifetime, and transmit power. Specifically, we find that with a fixed throughput requirement, lifetime is not monotonic with power-neither very low power nor very high power result in the best lifetime. We also find that, for a fixed transmit power, relaxing the throughput requirement may result in a more than proportional improvement in the lifetime for small enough relaxation factors. Taken together, our insights call for a careful balancing of objectives when designing a wireless network for high throughput and lifetime.