Distributed power control in ad-hoc wireless networks

TLDR

Mobile ad‑hoc networks rely on peer‑to‑peer communication over a dynamically changing topology, making energy‑efficient operation difficult without a centralized arbiter, and thus reducing energy consumption is a key research focus due to limited device batteries. The study proposes and evaluates a cellular‑style power‑control loop for ad‑hoc wireless networks. The authors implement the loop in a comprehensive simulation environment that models group mobility, group communication, and terrain blockage. The power‑control loop reduces energy consumption per transmitted byte by 10‑20% and increases overall throughput by 15%.

Abstract

Mobile ad-hoc networking involves peer-to-peer communication in a network with a dynamically changing topology. Achieving energy efficient communication in such a network is more challenging than in cellular networks since there is no centralized arbiter such as a base station that can administer power management. We propose and evaluate a power control loop, similar to those commonly found in cellular CDMA networks, for ad-hoc wireless networks. We use a comprehensive simulation infrastructure consisting of group mobility, group communication and terrain blockage models. A major focus of research in ad-hoc wireless networking is to reduce energy consumption because the wireless devices are envisioned to have small batteries and be incapable of energy scavenging. We show that this power control loop reduces energy consumption per transmitted byte by 10-20%. Furthermore, we show that it increases overall throughput by 15%.