Conflict graphs and the capacity of the mean power scheme

Abstract

In this paper the capacity and scheduling problems for wireless networks are considered. It is shown that when using the mean power scheme for the capacity problem, the conflict graph based interference model approximates the SINR model within a constant factor of approximation. Such an approximation does not take place for the uniform and linear power schemes. Using this result, it is also shown that under certain assumptions on the underlying metric space, the mean power scheme yields shorter (asymptotically) schedules than the uniform and linear power schemes, for any set of links. This supports the theoretical evidence that the mean power scheme is more efficient and scalable to different network topologies than more traditional uniform and linear power schemes, and could be a better candidate for MAC protocols. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.