Optimal Distributed Routing and Power Control Decomposition for Wireless Networks

Efficiently transmitting data in wireless networks requires an integrated routing, scheduling, and power control strategy. As opposed to the universal dual decomposition we present a method that solve this optimization problem by fully exploiting its combinatorial structure. The method still maintains main requirements such as optimality, distributed implementation, multiple path routing, and per-hop error performance. The method represents a cross-layer approach where we include scheduling in the constraint set of a joint routing and power control optimization problem. Apart from the mathematical framework, the main contribution is a routing and power control decomposition (RPCD) algorithm. For verification, we compare the RPCD algorithm with state-of-art dual decomposition for wireless mesh backhaul networks. Impressive convergence results indicate that the RPCD algorithm calculates the optimum solution in one decomposition step only.