Energy‐efficient Link Scheduling in Time‐variant Dual‐Hop 60GHz Wireless Networks

Abstract

Dual-hop 60 GHz wireless networks which support relay-assisted dual-hop transmission have been widely adopted in the recent years, aiming to prolong communication distance and bypass obstacles in 60 GHz band. However, it is very challenging to perform link scheduling in such dual-hop architecture while considering several factors, i.e., reducing network power consumption, avoiding overloaded APs/relays and adapting to network dynamics. To this end, we investigate the problem of energy-efficient link scheduling with load constraints (ELL), and propose solutions to deal with network dynamics. First, we present a fine-grained energy model for dual-hop 60 GHz networks, and formulate the ELL problem as an integer linear programming model that aims to minimize the network power consumption, while satisfying AP/relay load constraints. Then, we propose a polynomial-time global scheduling algorithm that obtains a near-optimal link scheduling solution via iterative relaxation, and the load constraint at each AP/relay can only be violated by at most an additive constant of two. Moreover, we present a local adjustment algorithm to adjust link-scheduling solutions efficiently, such as client arrival/departure and link blockage, and design a hybrid algorithm that combines global scheduling and local adjustment. Finally, we conduct simulation experiments that validate our algorithms' effectiveness and efficiency.

Distributed Scheduling Using Graph Neural Networks

“…Existing approaches to the aforementioned problems include topology control with antenna beams and/or transmit power [22][23][24], sleep scheduling [21,[24][25][26], and cross-layer optimization [27][28][29]. Topology control seeks to maintain a connected topology with minimal energy consumption, which however would increase overhearing and latency (e.g., larger hop distance as shown in Fig.…”

“…Sleep scheduling can reduce network density by putting nodes into periodic sleep mode in standalone or coordinated manner, and generally work well for low-duty-cycle devices with very low traffic demand. Cross-layer schemes jointly optimize power control, link scheduling, and routing for energy efficiency, but they generally have the same or higher control overhead than the above-mentioned MWIS schedulers, may need centralized computing [28,29], and only apply to either time-slotted or random access networks.…”

“…In this work, we consider scalable scheduling in general wireless multi-hop networks with heterogeneous devices (e.g., with different importance, air-interfaces, and tasks), orthogonal access, and high connection density, where existing approaches [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] are less effective or not scalable. Since network capacity is mainly constrained by interference (connection density) [30] and given the growing bandwidth of air-interfaces [1], we can trade off latency for connectivity by scheduling fewer transmissions each with larger payloads for each link.…”

“…Importantly, fewer concurrent transmission attempts will reduce scheduling overhead, collision, and idle listening. Furthermore, this approach could also be incorporated into existing solutions [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Emerging intelligent big data analytics for cloud and edge computing

“…However, it is very challenging to perform link scheduling in such dual-hop architecture while considering several factors, that is, reducing network power consumption, avoiding overloaded APs/relays and adapting to network dynamics. To this end, Wu et al 7 investigate the problem of energy efficient link scheduling with load constraints (ELL), and propose solutions to deal with network dynamics by presenting a fine-grained energy model for dual-hop 60 GHz networks and proposing a polynomial-time global scheduling algorithm.…”