In analyzing the point-to-point wireless channel, insights about two
qualitatively different operating regimes--bandwidth- and power-limited--have
proven indispensable in the design of good communication schemes. In this
paper, we propose a new scaling law formulation for wireless networks that
allows us to develop a theory that is analogous to the point-to-point case. We
identify fundamental operating regimes of wireless networks and derive
architectural guidelines for the design of optimal schemes.
Our analysis shows that in a given wireless network with arbitrary size,
area, power, bandwidth, etc., there are three parameters of importance: the
short-distance SNR, the long-distance SNR, and the power path loss exponent of
the environment. Depending on these parameters we identify four qualitatively
different regimes. One of these regimes is especially interesting since it is
fundamentally a consequence of the heterogeneous nature of links in a network
and does not occur in the point-to-point case; the network capacity is {\em
both} power and bandwidth limited. This regime has thus far remained hidden due
to the limitations of the existing formulation. Existing schemes, either
multihop transmission or hierarchical cooperation, fail to achieve capacity in
this regime; we propose a new hybrid scheme that achieves capacity.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Information
Theor