Optimal routing, link scheduling and power control in multihop wireless networks

In this paper, we study the problem of joint routing, link scheduling and power control to support high data rates for broadband wireless multihop networks. We first address the problem of finding an optimal link scheduling and power control policy that minimizes the total average transmission power in the wireless multihop network, subject to given constraints regarding the minimum average data rate per link, as well as peak transmission power constraints per node. Multiaccess signal interference is explicitly modeled. We use a duality approach whereby, as a byproduct of finding the optimal policy, we find the sensitivity of the minimal total average power with respect to the average data rate for each link. Since the minimal total average power is a convex function of the required minimum average data rates, shortest path algorithms with the link weights set to the link sensitivities can be used to guide the search for a globally optimum routing. We present a few simple examples that show our algorithm can find policies that support data rates that are not possible with conventional approaches. Moreover, we find that optimum allocations do not necessarily route traffic over minimum energy paths.