Routing and power control in frequency-hop random-access ad hoc networks

Frequency hopping provides some protection against multiple access interference in random-access ad hoc networks. Power control and the use of short routing hops can further reduce interference by promoting spatial reuse. If the network is fully connected, frequency hopping and power control alone may be sufficient to allow good throughput without the use of routing. This approach is particularly desirable as avoiding routing can simplify network setup and reduce packet delay. However, if the network is heavily loaded, frequency hopping may no longer sufficiently protect against interference, so including routing may be beneficial. In this paper, we consider application of least interference routing (LIR) to frequency hop random-access networks. The performance of a family of LIR metrics is considered for a variety of networks to determine which cases multi-hop routing should be used, and it is shown that the choice of the optimal metric is sensitive to several network characteristics.