Efficient Interference-Aware Power Control for Wireless Networks

Abstract

Interference management through power control in wireless networks has both the hidden terminal problem which induces transmission collisions, and the exposed terminal problem which blocks concurrent transmissions. Both problems are caused by the varied interference range of different links. Through observing that the nodes adopt the power control mechanism induce collisions in one scenario and miss concurrent transmission opportunities in two scenarios, this paper presents IAPC (Interference-Aware Power Control), a novel protocol to improve the network throughput from the three aspects. IAPC makes the interference range of each link covered by its CTS (Clear-To-Send) transmission through utilizing a signature detection process, so as to avoid interference. Meanwhile, it makes the CTS frame carry the transmission and reception power information of this link, according to which the neighboring node can determine a limited transmission power, trying to make itself outside the interference range of the ongoing link, so as to exploit concurrent transmissions. The signature detection range has been investigated through both experiment results and theoretical analysis, and the performance improvement of IAPC comparing with the other protocols has been shown through simulation results based on ns2.