Distributed topology control for energy-efficient and reliable wireless communications

A dense wireless ad hoc network with a high average node degree offers a strong connectivity for packet routing, but at the same time increases the probability of interference between nodes and results in rapid depletion of node energy. To remedy this issue, topology control mechanisms aim at optimizing transmission power of nodes in a wireless ad hoc network to maintain the connectivity of the network, reduce the energy wastage, and increase the network throughput. In this paper, we propose a partially localized topology control algorithm, namely articulation points based topology control (APTC), which effectively saves power consumption in a wireless ad hoc network with a low communication overhead. Unlike the existing topology control protocols, APTC designates articulation points to be initiators and builds a tree of minimum spanning trees to achieve power saving while maintaining network connectivity. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of APTC over the existing topology control algorithms in terms of power consumption and communication overhead.