| The topology of wireless multihop networks can be controlled by means of transmission power control, and this control can be performed with the objective of adapting the network topology to the data flows established by the end users. By adapting the network topology, the set of flow data rates that the network supports can be increased, or, if the flow data rates are fixed, the end-to-end delays experienced by the flows can be decreased. The research problem studied in this dissertation is the design of topology-control algorithms that maximize the size of the set of supported flow data rates.;The design of the algorithms is approached in three steps. In the first step, the supported set of flow data rates is characterized mathematically for fixed network topologies by means of a queueing-system stability analysis. Two main contributions are achieved in this step. These are (1) a novel stability-analysis technique for reservation-based distributed scheduling (RBDS) policies and (2) the greedy-maximal RBDS (GM-RBDS) policy that outperforms, in terms of throughput, the current policies available in the literature. In the second step, the mathematical characterization of the set of flow data rates supported by GM-RBDS networks is used for the design of a heuristic and centralized topology-control algorithm which outperforms the classic approach based on spatial reuse. The third step consists of the design of distributed topology-control algorithms that also use the mathematical characterization of the set of flow data rates. These algorithms are designed using game theory and compared with the centralized topology control of the second step. The network scenarios in which each of these two approaches (i.e., centralized and distributed) outperforms the other are identified.;Finally, this dissertation also includes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a simulation framework for Institute-of-Electrical-and-Electronics-Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 wireless mesh networks using optimized network engineering tools (OPNET). The GM-RBDS policy and the topology-control algorithms are evaluated in this framework. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first OPNET simulation framework for this type of networks. |
