DC Programming and DCA Based Cross-Layer Optimization in Multi-hop TDMA Networks

Efficient design of wireless networks is a challenging task. Recently, the concept of cross-layer design in wireless networks has been investigated extensively. In this work, we present a cross-layer optimization framework, i.e., joint rate control, routing, link scheduling and power control for multi-hop time division multiple access (TDMA) networks. In particular, we study a centralized controller that coordinates the routing process and transmissions of links such that the network lifetime is maximized. We show that the aforementioned design can be formulated as a mixed integer-linear program (MILP) which has worst case exponential complexity to compute the optimal solution. Therefore, our main contribution is to propose a computationally efficient approach to solve the cross-layer design problem. Our design methodology is based on a so-called Difference of Convex functions algorithm (DCA) to provide either optimal or near-optimal solutions with finite convergence. The numerical results are encouraging and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. One of the advantages of the proposed design is the capability to handle very large-scale problems which are the usual scenarios encountered in practice.