NeTS:Small:Collaborative Research: An Integrated Environment-Independent Approach to Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Each node in a wireless ad hoc network can choose the power at which it makes its transmissions and thus control the topology of the network. Though well-studied in the research literature, the problem of topology control has been largely considered only in idealized wireless environments and in isolation as a graph-theoretic abstraction. This project focuses on the design of topology control algorithms for reduced energy consumption, reduced interference and higher capacity in real wireless environments in the presence of multipath fading, link failures, high error rates and many other radio irregularities. The methodology follows two key philosophical goals: (i) an environment-independent approach which makes no constraining assumptions about the wireless environment (as opposed to trying to achieve approximations of reality in the assumptions), and (ii) an integrated approach which does not merely abstract out the problem of topology control separated from routing and link scheduling but embraces these into the design at the outset. This research also explores the fundamental limits of environment-independent topology control. An immediate impact of this project is new algorithmic strategies that speeds up the actual deployment of energy-efficient high-performance wireless ad hoc networks with benefits to many known applications. A yet broader impact is new generalized distributed algorithms that can be employed in contexts beyond wireless ad hoc networks a variety of educational activities including course enhancements and participation in NSF RET programs for high-school teachers.