Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks
Topology Control (TC) is one of the most important techniques used in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks to reduce energy consumption (which is essential to extend the network operational time) and radio interference (with a positive effect on the network traffic carrying capacity). The goal of this technique is to control the topology of the graph representing the communication links between network nodes with the purpose of maintaining some global graph property (e.g., connectivity), while reducing energy consumption and/or interference that are strictly related to the nodes’ transmitting range. In this article, we state several problems related to topology control in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, and we survey state-of-the-art solutions which have been proposed to tackle them. We also outline several directions for further research which we hope will motivate researchers to undertake additional studies in this field. Network Architecture and Design—Wireless communication The recent emergence of affordable, portable, wireless communication and computation devices and concomitant advances in the communication infrastructure have resulted in the rapid growth of mobile wireless networks. On one hand, this has led to the exponential growth of cellular networks which are based on the combination of wired and wireless technologies. On the other hand, this has renewed the interest of the scientific and industrial community in the more challenging scenario in which a group of mobile units equipped with radio Ad hoc networks can be used wherever a wired backbone is infeasible and/or economically in convenient, for example, to provide communications during emergencies, special