Optimization for resource-constrained wireless networks

Nowadays, wireless communications and networks have been widely used in our daily lives. One of the most important topics related to networking research is using optimization tools to improve the utilization of network resources. In this dissertation, we concentrate on optimization for resource-constrained wireless networks, and study two fundamental resource-allocation problems: 1) distributed routing optimization and 2) anypath routing optimization. The study on the distributed routing optimization problem is composed of two main thrusts, targeted at understanding distributed routing and resource optimization for multihop wireless networks. The first thrust is dedicated to understanding the impact of full-duplex transmission on wireless network resource optimization. We propose two provably good distributed algorithms to optimize the resources in a full-duplex wireless network. We prove their optimality and also provide network status analysis using dual space information. The second thrust is dedicated to understanding the influence of network entity load constraints on network resource allocation and routing computation. We propose a provably good distributed algorithm to allocate wireless resources. In addition, we propose a new subgradient optimization framework, which can provide findgrained convergence, optimality, and dual space information at each iteration. This framework can provide a useful theoretical foundation for many networking optimization problems. The study on the anypath routing optimization problem is composed of two main thrusts. The first thrust is dedicated to understanding the computational complexity of multi-constrained anypath routing and designing approximate solutions. We prove that this problem is NP-hard when the number of constraints is larger than one. We present two polynomial time K-approximation algorithms. One is a centralized algorithm while the other one is a distributed algorithm. For the second thrust, we study directional anypath routing and present a cross-layer design of MAC and routing. For the MAC layer, we present a directional anycast MAC. For the routing layer, we propose two polynomial time routing algorithms to compute directional anypaths based on two antenna models, and prove their ptimality based on the packet delivery ratio metric.