Power control for multiple access communication systems with multi-packet reception capability

This paper addresses the power control problem in wireless multiple access communication systems with a multi-packet reception (MPR) channel. Driven by advances in signal processing and multiuser detection (MUD) technologies such as UWB and MIMO, it has become possible for a wireless node to simultaneously receive several packets from other transmitters. In this case, the receiver node can determine the set of transmitters from which it wants to receive data and instruct them to adjust their transmit power levels in order to maximize the overall network capacity by exploiting the MPR capability. We first show that the efficiency of the MPR channel utilization can be maximized by equalizing the transmission durations of simultaneously transmitting nodes, and then propose a power control that increases/decreases the transmit power of the nodes to equalize the transmission durations. Under the proposed power control, a node with a long transmission duration is allowed to use a higher transmit power if the next higher transmission rate is achievable with the increased transmit power. Through extensive simulations, we show that the proposed power control significantly improves the overall network capacity in multiple access.