Reliability constrained packet-sizing for linear multi-hop wireless networks

We consider optimizing the packet-sizes and the reuse factor to minimize the delay required to send a message between two nodes in a linear multi-hop wireless network subject to a reliability constraint. Initially assuming no re-use, we give a bound on the required delay. Next, in an infinite system with re-use, we analyze the rate of growth of the delay as a function of the message size. Two cases are considered: one in which packets are decoded/re-encoded on each hop and one in which this is concatenated with an end-to-end outer code. The later is shown to result in lower delays.