Improving wireless network capacity under high transmission power with adaptive carrier sensing and routing

Abstract

The paper revisits power control in wireless mesh networks, where mesh routers usually have sufficient power supply and the main consideration is improving network capacity. Our study shows that network capacity increases with higher common transmission power under optimal link scheduling and routing, but it is not always the case for the protocols deployed today. Can we have a unified solution to power control, link scheduling and routing so as to improve network capacity with higher transmission power, independent of network topologies and traffic patterns? Our preliminary answer is Yes by proposing the unified routing (Maximum RSS Opportunistic Routing, MROR) and link scheduling algorithms (carrier sensing & Probe, CSP). This work may bring out a new perspective that the power control problem can be efficiently solved with careful designs of link scheduling and routing protocols.