Quantitative analysis of the effect of transmitting power on the capacity of wireless ad hoc networks

  • Authors:

  • Xue Zhang;Haigang Gong;Ming Liu;Sanglu Lu;Jie Wu

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China;University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China;University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China;Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the eleventh ACM international symposium on Mobile ad hoc networking and computing
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

This paper presents a fundamental understanding regarding the effect that transmitting power has on the capacity of wireless ad hoc networks. Under the assumption that all interference is essentially regarded as noise, we carry out a quantitative analysis from the perspective of information theory. First, we answer the question, "How much information can be carried per unit bandwidth over a wireless ad hoc network under a certain power assignment and nodal distribution?" We then prove that the maximum network capacity, whether in bps (bits per second) or in bmps (bit-meters per second), strictly increases with respect to the total transmitting power under a fixed-proportion assignment, and that there is a limit as the total transmitting power goes to infinity. We further conclude that the maximum power efficiency, whether in bpJ (bits per Joule) or in bmpJ (bit-meters per Joule), strictly decreases with respect to the total transmitting power under a fixed-proportion assignment. We also show that the maximum network capacity, whether in bps or in bmps, follows an O(n) scaling law, where n is the number of nodes, which coincides with previous asymptotic conclusions. Finally, we highlight the practical implications of the results for power allocation, power assignment, and transmission scheduling. The contributions of this paper may be worthy of consideration by wireless network designers.