Joint scheduling and spectrum allocation in wireless networks with frequency-agile radios

Abstract

We study the benefits of optimal spectrum allocation in a wireless network with frequency agile radios and we present a cross-layer problem formulation for the joint routing and link scheduling under non-uniform spectrum allocation. We present a primal-dual decomposition to provide an exact solution for this complex optimization problem. Given the difficulty associated with such design, we propose a heuristic approach based on simulated annealing to solve the dual sub-problem of the decomposed model. Numerical results revealed that up to 44% improvement in network performance is obtained when variable-width spectrum band allocation is used, as opposed to the best fixed-width spectrum band allocation for larger networks. Numerical results also confirm that the primal-dual decomposition method using simulated annealing to solve the dual sub-problem, substantially reduces the computation time and achieves near optimal solutions. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.