Negotiation-Based Distributed Power Control in Wireless Networks with Autonomous Nodes

The efficient management of the radio spectrum is a key functionality in every type of wireless network. Wireless nodes generally have heterogeneous QoS targets, which sometimes cannot be satisfied for all of them due to the high interference levels that frequently arise, even in sparse topologies. In this work, we propose a distributed negotiation-based power control algorithm that aims at maximizing the number of nodes achieving their QoS targets. Our algorithm combines the influential Foschini-Miljanic power control algorithm with a bargaining-inspired phase (among the unsatisfied nodes only). In particular, all nodes are endowed with an initial budget; unsatisfied nodes randomly pick others to negotiate with for the level of their transmission powers; if a negotiation leads to an agreement, a node gives some (predefined) reward to the other and the latter reduces its power to the agreed level; the process is then repeated, using the updated budgets. Simulations show that, under various negotiation scenarios, our scheme is more efficient than previously proposed approaches that impose on the "weakest" nodes (those that are further from their targets) to turn off their power completely. More importantly, our scheme leads to a statistical rotation of the set of nodes that achieve their target, independently of the initial budget allocation, and hence is more fair.