A Distributed Range Assignment Protocol

Abstract. We present a new distributed algorithm for creating and maintaining power-efficient topologies in a wireless network. The wireless nodes establish links to neighbouring nodes in a self-organizing fashion. The protocol is designed to first create a connected topology and then iteratively search for better links to reduce the overall power consumption. First results from simulated experiments with various network sizes show that the resulting topologies are close to optimal in respect to the total energy consumption

Minimum-energy broadcast in random-grid ad-hoc networks: approximation and distributed algorithms

The Min Energy broadcast problem consists in assigning transmission ranges to the nodes of an ad-hoc network in order to guarantee a directed spanning tree from a given source node and, at the same time, to minimize the energy consumption (i.e. the energy cost) yielded by the range assignment. Min energy broadcast is known to be NP-hard. We consider random-grid networks where nodes are chosen independently at random from the $n$ points of a $\sqrt n \times \sqrt n$ square grid in the plane. The probability of the existence of a node at a given point of the grid does depend on that point, that is, the probability distribution can be non-uniform. By using information-theoretic arguments, we prove a lower bound $(1-\epsilon) \frac n{\pi}$ on the energy cost of any feasible solution for this problem. Then, we provide an efficient solution of energy cost not larger than $1.1204 \frac n{\pi}$. Finally, we present a fully-distributed protocol that constructs a broadcast range assignment of energy cost not larger than $8n$,thus still yielding constant approximation. The energy load is well balanced and, at the same time, the work complexity (i.e. the energy due to all message transmissions of the protocol) is asymptotically optimal. The completion time of the protocol is only an $O(\log n)$ factor slower than the optimum. The approximation quality of our distributed solution is also experimentally evaluated. All bounds hold with probability at least $1-1/n^{\Theta(1)}$.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

An Alloy Verification Model for Consensus-Based Auction Protocols

Max Consensus-based Auction (MCA) protocols are an elegant approach to establish conflict-free distributed allocations in a wide range of network utility maximization problems. A set of agents independently bid on a set of items, and exchange their bids with their first hop-neighbors for a distributed (max-consensus) winner determination. The use of MCA protocols was proposed, $e.g.$, to solve the task allocation problem for a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, in smart grids, or in distributed virtual network management applications. Misconfigured or malicious agents participating in a MCA, or an incorrect instantiation of policies can lead to oscillations of the protocol, causing, $e.g.$, Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations. In this paper, we propose a formal, machine-readable, Max-Consensus Auction model, encoded in the Alloy lightweight modeling language. The model consists of a network of agents applying the MCA mechanisms, instantiated with potentially different policies, and a set of predicates to analyze its convergence properties. We were able to verify that MCA is not resilient against rebidding attacks, and that the protocol fails (to achieve a conflict-free resource allocation) for some specific combinations of policies. Our model can be used to verify, with a "push-button" analysis, the convergence of the MCA mechanism to a conflict-free allocation of a wide range of policy instantiations

Hierarchical Up/Down Routing Architecture for Ethernet backbones and campus networks

We describe a new layer two distributed and scalable routing architecture. It uses an automatic hierarchical node identifier assignment mechanism associated to the rapid spanning tree protocol. Enhanced up/down mechanisms are used to prohibit some turns at nodes to break cycles, instead of blocking links like the spannning tree protocol does. The protocol performance is similar or better than other turn prohibition algorithms recently proposed with lower complexity O(Nd) and better scalability. Simulations show that the fraction of prohibited turns over random networks is less than 0.2. The effect of root bridge election on the performance of the protocol is limited both in the random and regular networks studied. The use of hierarchical, tree-descriptive addresses simplifies the routing, and avoids the need of all nodes having a global knowleddge of the network topology. Routing frames through the hierarchical tree at very high speed is possible by progressive decoding of frame destination address, without routing tables or port address learning. Coexistence with standard bridges is achieved using combined devices: bridges that forward the frames having global destination MAC addresses as standard bridges and frames with local MAC frames with the proposed protocol.Publicad

Extremal Properties of Three Dimensional Sensor Networks with Applications

In this paper, we analyze various critical transmitting/sensing ranges for connectivity and coverage in three-dimensional sensor networks. As in other large-scale complex systems, many global parameters of sensor networks undergo phase transitions: For a given property of the network, there is a critical threshold, corresponding to the minimum amount of the communication effort or power expenditure by individual nodes, above (resp. below) which the property exists with high (resp. a low) probability. For sensor networks, properties of interest include simple and multiple degrees of connectivity/coverage. First, we investigate the network topology according to the region of deployment, the number of deployed sensors and their transmitting/sensing ranges. More specifically, we consider the following problems: Assume that $n$ nodes, each capable of sensing events within a radius of $r$, are randomly and uniformly distributed in a 3-dimensional region $\mathcal{R}$ of volume $V$, how large must the sensing range be to ensure a given degree of coverage of the region to monitor? For a given transmission range, what is the minimum (resp. maximum) degree of the network? What is then the typical hop-diameter of the underlying network? Next, we show how these results affect algorithmic aspects of the network by designing specific distributed protocols for sensor networks

Towards Optimal Distributed Node Scheduling in a Multihop Wireless Network through Local Voting

In a multihop wireless network, it is crucial but challenging to schedule transmissions in an efficient and fair manner. In this paper, a novel distributed node scheduling algorithm, called Local Voting, is proposed. This algorithm tries to semi-equalize the load (defined as the ratio of the queue length over the number of allocated slots) through slot reallocation based on local information exchange. The algorithm stems from the finding that the shortest delivery time or delay is obtained when the load is semi-equalized throughout the network. In addition, we prove that, with Local Voting, the network system converges asymptotically towards the optimal scheduling. Moreover, through extensive simulations, the performance of Local Voting is further investigated in comparison with several representative scheduling algorithms from the literature. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance than the other distributed algorithms in terms of average delay, maximum delay, and fairness. Despite being distributed, the performance of Local Voting is also found to be very close to a centralized algorithm that is deemed to have the optimal performance

Topology Control for Maintaining Network Connectivity and Maximizing Network Capacity Under the Physical Model

In this paper we study the issue of topology control under the physical Signal-to-Interference-Noise-Ratio (SINR) model, with the objective of maximizing network capacity. We show that existing graph-model-based topology control captures interference inadequately under the physical SINR model, and as a result, the interference in the topology thus induced is high and the network capacity attained is low. Towards bridging this gap, we propose a centralized approach, called Spatial Reuse Maximizer (MaxSR), that combines a power control algorithm T4P with a topology control algorithm P4T. T4P optimizes the assignment of transmit power given a fixed topology, where by optimality we mean that the transmit power is so assigned that it minimizes the average interference degree (defined as the number of interferencing nodes that may interfere with the on-going transmission on a link) in the topology. P4T, on the other hand, constructs, based on the power assignment made in T4P, a new topology by deriving a spanning tree that gives the minimal interference degree. By alternately invoking the two algorithms, the power assignment quickly converges to an operational point that maximizes the network capacity. We formally prove the convergence of MaxSR. We also show via simulation that the topology induced by MaxSR outperforms that derived from existing topology control algorithms by 50%-110% in terms of maximizing the network capacity