Joint data rate and power allocation in interference limited ad hoc networks

In this paper, we consider the following problem: given a set of paths between source and destination, how to divide the data flow among the paths and how to control the transmission rates, times, and powers of the individual links among the paths in order to maximize the operation time of the worst network node. If all nodes are of equal importance, the operation time of the worst node is also the lifetime of the network. We will investigate the network lifetime as a function of peak data rate and maximum transmission power. For the purpose, we start from a system model that considers the signal to interference ratio and incorporates it into a variable data rate on a link. With this, we can develop an iterative algorithm for lifetime maximization, which resembles to distributed power control in cellular systems. Numerical example on the iterative algorithm is included to illustrate how the transmission power of each node could affect the lifetime of an ad hoc network.