Rollout Algorithms for Integrated Topology Control and Routing in Wireless Optical Backbone Networks

Abstract

We consider a wireless backbone network with free space optical point-to-point links. Such a network could form a backbone for either a cellular or hierarchical ad hoc network. Each backbone node has a limited number of transceivers with which to establish links to neighbors. Given estimated aggregate traffic demands between source and destination backbone nodes, we consider the problem of topology control and routing-- determining which links to set up and which routes to establish in order to maximize the throughput. While the problem may be formulated as an integer linear program, its solution is computationally prohibitive. Consequently, we use the mathematical technique of rollout to develop effective heuristic algorithms. Through simulation experiments, we show that the performance of the rollout algorithms we derive is clearly superior to that of the initial heuristic algorithms on which they are based.