Swarm approach for a connectivity problem in wireless networks

We consider the problem of assigning transmission powers to the nodes of a wireless network in such a way that all the nodes are connected by bidirectional links and the total power consumption is minimized. Since no central authority (with a global vision of the network) exists in wireless networks, only distributed, swarm approaches can be used. We present a distributed protocol that embeds well-known centralized techniques for power minimization, here used in a local, distributed fashion. The result can be seen as a complex adaptive system (the global network), where global optimization emerges as a result of the behavior of local nodes, each one carrying out a myopic, local optimization. Computational results, proving the effectiveness of the new protocol, are finally presented.