2

Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks
PAOLO SANTI
Istituto di Informatica e Telematica
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.
Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.2.1 [Computer-Communication Networks]:

Network Architecture and Design—Wireless communication
General Terms: Algorithms, Design
Additional Key Words and Phrases: Connectivity, energy consumption, topology control,
sensor networks, wireless ad hoc networks
1. INTRODUCTION transceivers communicate without the as-

sistance of any fixed infrastructure.
The recent emergence of affordable, Networks composed of mobile, unteth-
portable, wireless communication and ered units communicating with each other
computation devices and concomitant ad- via radio transceivers, typically along
vances in the communication infrastruc- multihop paths, have been called ad hoc
ture have resulted in the rapid growth of networks in the literature.1 Ad hoc net-
mobile wireless networks. On one hand, works can be used wherever a wired back-
this has led to the exponential growth bone is infeasible and/or economically in
of cellular networks which are based on convenient, for example, to provide com-
the combination of wired and wireless munications during emergencies, special
technologies. On the other hand, this has
renewed the interest of the scientific
and industrial community in the more 1 Sometimes, ad hoc networks are called packet radio
challenging scenario in which a group networks which is the name used in the early papers
of mobile units equipped with radio in the field.
Author’s address: Istituto di Informatica e Telematica del CNR, Area della Ricerca, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124
Pisa, Italy; email: paolo.santi@iit.cnr.it.
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ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005, pp. 164–194.
Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks 165
Fig. 1. Example of a wireless sensor network.
events (expos, concerts, etc.), or in hostile et al. [2002], Pottie and Kaiser [2000],
environments. Sadler et al. [2004], Schwiebert et al.
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are [2001], Srivastava et al. [2001], Steere
a special class of ad hoc networks. In et al. [2000], and Szewczyk et al. [2004].
a WSN, the interconnected units are The following aspects that have to be
battery-operated microsensors, each of carefully taken into account in the de-
which is integrated in a single package sign stage are peculiar to wireless ad hoc
with low-power signal processing, compu- networks.
tation, and a wireless transceiver. Sensor
nodes collect the data of interest (e.g., — Energy conservation. Contrary to the
temperature, pressure, soil makeup, etc.), case of wired networks, units in ad hoc
and transmit them, possibly compressed networks are typically equipped with
and/or aggregated with those of neigh- limited energy supplies. Hence, one of
boring nodes, to the other nodes. In this the primary goals of the design is to
way, every node in the network acquires use this limited energy as efficiently
a global view of the monitored area that as possible. Energy efficiency is espe-
can be accessed by the external user con- cially important in WSNs where re-
nected to the WSN through one or more placing/refilling sensor batteries is, in
gateway nodes (see Figure 1). Potential general, infeasible. If energy conserva-
applications of sensor networks abound; tion techniques are used at different
they can be used to monitor remote and/or levels of the wireless architecture, the
hostile geographical regions, to trace ani- functional lifetime of both individual
mals movement, to improve weather fore- units and the network can be extended
cast, and so on. Examples of scenarios considerably.
where WSN can be used are described in — Limited bandwidth. Typically wire-
Estrin et al. [1999], Heinzelman et al. less multihop networks are character-
[1999], Khan et al. [2000], Mainwaring ized by a limited bandwidth available
ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

166 P. Santi
to the nodes. Although the theoreti- nication quality, sensed data must be
cal bandwidth in industrial standards compressed and/or aggregated with data
such as IEEE 802.11 can be as high of neighboring sensors before sending
as 54Mb/sec [IEEE 1999], the situa- them to the gateway node(s).
tion is far worse in practical situations —Scalability. Depending on the scenario
mainly because of the radio interfer- considered, WSNs might be composed of
ence caused by simultaneous commu- several thousands of sensors. Thus, the
nications. Thus, a major problem in the scalability of the proposed protocols is
design of ad hoc networks is to keep the an important issue.
network traffic carrying capacity at a
reasonable level even in the presence Several solutions have been proposed
of dense node deployments. in the literature that address at least
— Unstructured and time-varying net- some of the issues raised above. In par-
work topology. Nodes in the network ticular, great efforts have been devoted
may, in principle, be arbitrarily placed to the design of energy-efficient and
in the deployment region; hence, the mobility-resilient routing, broadcast, and
graph representing the communication multicast protocols [Basagni et al. 1999;
links between the nodes is usually un- Gerla and Tsai 1995; Ko and Vaidya
structured. Furthermore, due to node 1998; Michail and Ephremides 2003;
mobility and/or failure, the network Murthy and Garcia-Luna-Aceves 1996;
topology may vary with time. As a con- Papadimitriou and Georgiadis 2004;
sequence, determining the appropri- Rajaraman 2002; Seada et al. 2004].
ate value of fundamental network pa- Routing and broadcast protocols are
rameters (e.g., the critical transmitting usually concerned with energy-efficient
range for connectivity, see Section 5.1) message delivery on a given communica-
is a difficult task. tion graph which is considered as an in-
put to the protocol. However, contrary to
— Low-quality communications. Commu-
the case of wired networks, the network
nication on wireless channels is, in gen-
topology in wireless networks is not fixed
eral, much less reliable than in wired
and can be changed by varying the nodes’
channels. Furthermore, the quality of
transmitting range. So, further energy can
communication is strongly influenced
be saved if the network topology used
by environmental factors which can be
to route/broadcast messages is energy-
time-varying. Considering that ad hoc
efficient itself. The goal of topology control
networks, and especially WSNs, are
is to dynamically change the nodes’ trans-
likely to be deployed in hostile environ-
mitting range in order to maintain some
ments, low communication quality is to
property of the communication graph (e.g.,
be expected in general, with nonnegli-
connectivity), while reducing the energy
gible off-service time intervals.
consumed by node transceivers (which is
In the case of WSNs, the following as- strictly related to the transmitting range).
pects must also be considered. Since transceivers are one of the pri-
mary sources of energy consumption in the
—Operation in hostile environments. In wireless unit, especially in WSNs, topol-
many scenarios, WSNs are expected to ogy control mechanisms are fundamen-
operate in hostile environments so sen- tal to achieving a good network energy
sors must be explicitly designed to work efficiency.
under extreme conditions which may Besides reducing energy consumption,
make individual unit failure a likely topology control has the positive effect of
event. Hence, resilience to sensor faults reducing contention when accessing the
must be explicitly addressed at different wireless channel. In general, when the
network layers. nodes’ transmitting ranges are relatively
—Data processing. Given the energy con- short, many nodes can transmit simul-
straints and the expected poor commu- taneously without interfering with each

other, and the network capacity is in- approaches to the topology control prob-
creased. Ideally, the nodes’ transmitting lem that has appeared in the literature. In
range should be set to the minimum value Section 4, we review the probabilistic the-
such that the graph that represents the ories that have been used in the derivation
communication links between units is con- of theoretical results concerning topology
nected. How to compute this value under control. In Section 5, we introduce several
different hypotheses on the initial node problems related to topology control in sta-
distribution, presence, and type of mobil- tionary networks, and we survey state-
ity, and so on, is the subject of this survey. of-the-art solutions which have been pro-
Before proceeding, some observations posed to tackle them. In Section 6, we
regarding terminology are in order. The will discuss how node mobility affects the
term topology control has been used with picture drawn in Section 5. Finally, in
at least two different meanings in the ad Section 7, we outline several directions for
hoc and sensor networks literature. For further research.
instance, several authors consider as
topology control techniques aimed at su-
2. A WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORK MODEL
perimposing a hierarchy on an otherwise
flat network organization in order to re- In this section, we introduce a simplified
duce, typically, energy consumption. This but widely accepted model of a wireless ad
is the case, for instance, with clustering hoc network which will be used in the def-
algorithms which select some of the nodes inition of the various problems related to
in the network as clusterheads whose pur- topology control considered in the litera-
pose is to optimize energy and communica- ture.
tion efficiency in their cluster. Although, in The node configuration of a
a sense, clustering algorithms can be seen d -dimensional mobile wireless ad hoc
as a way of controlling the network topol- network with d = 1, 2, 3, is represented
ogy, they cannot be classified as topology by a pair M d = (N , P ), where N is
control mechanisms according to the infor- the set of nodes, with |N | = n, and
mal definition previously presented since P : N × T → [0, l ]d , for some l > 0, is the
the transmit power of the nodes is usually placement function. The placement func-
not modified by a clustering algorithm. tion assigns to every element of N and to
Also, the terms power control and topol- any time t ∈ T a set of coordinates in the
ogy control are often confused with each d -dimensional cube of side l , representing
other in the current literature. In our view, the node’s physical position at time t. The
we classify as power control those tech- choice of limiting the admissible physical
niques that, by acting on the transmit placement of nodes to a bounded region
power level of the nodes, aim at optimizing of Rd of the form [0, l ]d , for some l > 0,
a single wireless transmission. Although is realistic and eases the treatment of
this transmission might, in general, be some of the problems considered in the
multihop, the focus of power control is on following.
the efficiency of a single (possibly multi- Node i ∈ N is said to be stationary if
hop) wireless channel. Again, this feature its physical placement does not vary with
of power control does not fulfill our infor- time. If all the nodes are stationary, the
mal definition of topology control in which network is said to be stationary, and func-
nodes adjust their transmitting range in tion P can be represented simply as P :
order to achieve a certain network-wide N → [0, l ]d .
target goal (e.g., network connectivity). A range assignment for a d -dimensional
The rest of this article is organized as node configuration M d = (N , P ) is a func-
follows. In Section 2, we introduce a sim- tion R A : N → (0, rmax ] that assigns to
plified but widely accepted model of a wire- every element of N a value in (0, rmax ],
less ad hoc network which will be used representing its transmitting range.
in the rest of the article. In Section 3, we Parameter rmax is called the maximum
propose a taxonomy to classify the many transmitting range of the nodes in the

168 P. Santi
network and depends on the features G t = (N , E(t)), where the directed edge
of the radio transceivers equipping the [i, j ] exists if and only if RA(i) ≥ δ P (i,t), P ( j,t) .
mobile nodes. A common assumption In other words, the directed edge [i, j ] ex-
is that all the nodes are equipped with ists if and only if nodes i and j are at
transceivers having the same features; a distance of at most RA(i) at time t. In
hence, we have a single value of rmax for this case, node j is said to be a neigh-
all the nodes in the network. bor of i. A range assignment RA is said
It is known [Rappaport 2002] that the to be connecting at time t if the resulting
power pi required by node i to correctly communication graph at time t is strongly
transmit data to node j must satisfy in- connected.2 If the network is stationary,
equality we simply say that the range assignment
pi RA is connecting. A range assignment in
≥β, (1) which all the nodes have the same trans-
δi,α j
mitting range r, for some 0 < r ≤ rmax , is
where α ≥ 2 is the distance-power gradi- called r-homogeneous range assignment.3
ent, β ≥ 1 is the transmission quality pa- Observe that the communication graph
rameter, and δi, j is the Euclidean distance generated by a homogeneous range as-
between the nodes. While the value of β signment can be considered as undirected
is usually set to 1, the value of α depends since [i, j ] ∈ E(t) ⇔ [ j, i] ∈ E(t).
on environmental conditions. In the ideal In general, the range assignment may
case, we have α = 2; however, α is typi- vary with time in order to ensure tar-
cally 4 in realistic situations. A value of α get properties (e.g., strong connectivity, a
in the interval [2, 6] is commonly accepted. given network diameter h < n) of the com-
Given the previous formula, we can define munication graph. Hence, a sequence of
the energy cost
of a range assignment RA range assignments RAt1 , RAt2 , . . . can be
as c(RA) = i∈N (RA(i))α . defined, where RAti is the range assign-
Formula (1) holds for free-space envi- ment at time ti , and the transition between
ronments with nonobstructed line of sight, range assignments is determined by the
and it does not consider the possible occur- topology control mechanism.
rence of reflections, scattering, and diffrac- The communication graph as defined
tion caused by buildings, terrain, and so here is essentially the point graph model
on. Although more complicated formulas introduced in Sen and Huson [1996], but
of the radio signal attenuation with dis- it is more often called the unit disk graph
tance are known, such as that recently de- model in the topology control (TC) litera-
rived in Bruck et al. [2002], Inequality (1) ture. If node positions are chosen accord-
is widely accepted in the ad hoc network ing to some probability distribution, the
community. point graph model coincides with the con-
Note that Inequality (1) accounts for cept of Random Geometric Graph (RGG)
only the power consumed by the sender which is a generalization of the notion of
node (transmit power). In practice, in Random Graph introduced in the applied
a radio communication, a nonnegligible probability community (see Section 4 for
amount of energy is also consumed at details).
the receiver node to receive and decode The main weakness of the point graph
the transmitted signal. Most current lit- model is the assumption that the radio
erature does not account for the receiver coverage area is a perfect circle. This as-
energy, and the design of topology control sumption is quite realistic in open-air flat
protocols based on more realistic energy
models is one of the main open issues in
2 A directed graph G = (N , E) is strongly connected
the field (see Section 7).
if and only if, for any two nodes u, v ∈ N , there exists
Given a node configuration M d = (N , P ) a directed path from u to v in G.
and a range assignment RA, the commu- 3 When the value of r is not relevant, the r-
nication graph induced by RA on M d at homogeneous range assignment is simply called the
time t is defined as the directed graph homogeneous range assignment.

ing on the type of information that is

used to compute the topology. In location-
based approaches, exact node positions are
known. This information is either used by
a centralized authority to compute a set of
transmitting range assignments which op-
timizes a certain measure (this is the case
of the Range Assignment problem and
its variants), or it is exchanged between
nodes and used to compute an “almost op-
timal” topology in a fully distributed man-
ner (this is the case for protocols used
Fig. 2. A taxonomy of topology control techniques.
for building energy-efficient topologies for
environments, but it is critical in indoor or unicast or broadcast communication). In
urban scenarios where the presence of ob- direction-based approaches, it is assumed
jects, walls, buildings, and so on, renders that nodes do not know their position,
the radio coverage area extremely irreg- but they can estimate the relative direc-
ular. Further, the area and shape of the tion of each of their neighbors. Finally,
radio coverage is influenced by weather in neighbor-based techniques, nodes are
conditions and by the interference with assumed to know only the ID of the neigh-
preexisting infrastructure (e.g., power bors and are able to order them accord-
lines, base stations, etc.) Including all ing to some criterion (e.g., distance, or link
these details in the network model quality).
would make it extremely complicated Besides classifying topology control ap-
and scenario-dependent, hampering the proaches based on the constraints we put
derivation of meaningful and sufficiently on the range assignment (homogeneous
general analytical results. For this reason, or nonhomogeneous), and on the type of
the point graph model described earlier, information which is available to the net-
although quite simplistic, is widely used work nodes, we can also distinguish the
in the analysis of ad hoc networks. various approaches proposed in the lit-
erature based on the properties of the
network topology resulting from the ap-
3. A TAXONOMY OF TOPOLOGY CONTROL
plication of topology control techniques.
In this section, we try to organize into a co- Most of the approaches presented in
herent taxonomy the various approaches the literature are concerned with building
to the topology control problem as it has and maintaining a connected network
appeared in the literature. topology as network partitioning is highly
Our taxonomy is depicted in Figure 2. undesirable. More recently, some authors
The first distinction is between homoge- have considered the problem of building a
neous and nonhomogeneous approaches. k-connected network topology (with
In the former case, which is the simpler k > 1), that is, a topology in which there
(and easier to analyze) type of TC, nodes exists at least k distinct paths between
are assumed to use the same transmit- any two network nodes. Guaranteeing
ting range, and the topology control prob- k-connectivity of the communication
lem reduces to the one of determining the graph is fundamental in all those ap-
minimum value of r such that a certain plications in which a certain degree of
network-wide property is satisfied (the fault-tolerance is needed: since there exist
Critical Transmitting Range). In the lat- at least k paths between any two network
ter case, nodes are allowed to choose dif- nodes, network connectivity is guaran-
ferent transmitting ranges (provided they teed in the presence of up to k − 1 node
do not exceed the maximum range). failures. Other authors have recently also
Nonhomogeneous topology control is considered the topology control problem
classified into three categories, depend- in a context (typical of wireless sensor

170 P. Santi
networks) in which nodes alternate be- analyzed the performance of a randomized

tween active and sleeping times, and the distributed algorithm aimed at connecting
goal is to build a network topology such clusterheads in a Virtual Cellular Archi-
that the subnetwork composed of the tecture. The authors claim that the RN
active nodes is connected at any time (see model, relying on an arbitrary nondegen-
Section 5.1.4). erate probability distribution, can account
for correlations between edges which were
not allowed in the uniform model. Un-
4. PROBABILISTIC TOOLS
fortunately, the actual probability distri-
Some of the analytical results presented bution of the graphs describing ad hoc
in this article are based on a probabilistic networks might be degenerate. In fact, the
approach. In this Section, we survey the actual distribution is the uniform distribu-
probabilistic theories that have been used tion over the class of point graphs which is
to derive them. degenerate if the size of the class of point
The main difficulty that arises in the graphs is relatively small compared to the
probabilistic analysis of wireless ad hoc class of all possible graphs. Since the class
networks is that the well-established the- of point graphs has not yet been character-
ory of random graphs [Bollobás 1985; ized, its size is unknown and determining
Palmer 1985] cannot be used. In fact, a whether this distribution is degenerate or
fundamental assumption in this model is not is still an open problem.
that the probabilities of edge occurrence A more recent theory which is still in de-
in the graph are independent which is not velopment is the theory of geometric ran-
the case in wireless ad hoc networks. As dom graphs (GRG). In the theory of GRG,
an example, consider three nodes i, j, k a set of n points is distributed according to
such that δi, j < δi,k . With common wireless some density in a d -dimensional region R,
technologies that use omni-directional an- and some property of the resulting node
tennas, and disregarding the effect of placement is investigated. For example,
shadowing and fading on radio signal the longest nearest-neighbor link [Penrose
propagation, if i has a link to k, then it also 1999a], the longest edge of the Euclidean
has a link to j . Hence, the occurrences of Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) [Penrose
edges (i, j ) and (i, k) are correlated. 1999c; Penrose 1997], and the total cost of
In order to circumvent this problem, the MST have been investigated [Aldous
Chlamtac and Faragó [1999] introduced and Steele 1992; Steele 1988; Yukich
the Random Network (RN) model as a gen- 2000]. For a survey of GRG, the reader
eralization of the uniform random graph is referred to Diaz et al. [2000]. Re-
model in which graphs are selected ac- cently, several papers [Bettstetter 2002b;
cording to a more general probability dis- Blough et al. 2002; Panchapakesan and
tribution. We recall that in the uniform Manjunath 2001; Santi 2005; Wan and
random graph model, each element of a Yi 2004; Yi et al. 2003; Yi and Wan 2005]
given class of graphs with n vertices is have used the theory of GRG to ana-
assigned an equal probability of being cho- lyze fundamental properties (typically,
sen. Examples of uniform models are ran- connectivity) of wireless ad hoc networks.
dom graphs
with a given number m, with Two others theories have been used in
0 ≤ m ≤ n2 , of edges, random trees, random the probabilistic analysis of ad hoc net-
k-regular graphs, and so on. In the RN works: the theory of continuum percola-
model, graphs can be chosen according to tion and the occupancy theory.
an arbitrary nondegenerate distribution, In the theory of continuum percolation
where a nondegenerate distribution is a [Meester and Roy 1996], nodes are as-
distribution that does not concentrate (in sumed to be distributed with Poisson den-
a probabilistic sense) on a class of graphs sity λ in R2 , and two nodes are connected
of relatively small size. Based on the RN to each other if the distance between them
model and using the theory of Kolmogorov is at most r. It has been proven that,
complexity, Chlamtac and Faragó [1999] for each λ > 0, there exists at most one

infinite-order component with high prob- conditions all the cells are filled with at
ability. However, the existence of an least one node (ball). This technique has
infinite-order component is not sufficient been used in Santi and Blough [2003,
to ensure the connectivity of the network. 2002].
In fact, there could exist (infinitely many)
nodes which do not belong to the giant
5. STATIONARY NETWORKS
component, thus leading to a disconnected
communication graph. Hence, the quality In this Section, we will consider several
of connectivity is related to the fraction θ problems related to topology control in sta-
of nodes belonging to the giant component tionary ad hoc networks. The generaliza-
[Janson et al. 1993] which, in turn, depend tion of some of these problems to the more
on the percolation probability. The perco- complicated scenario of mobile networks
lation probability is the probability that is presented in Section 6.
an arbitrary node belongs to a connected
component of infinite order. The main re- 5.1. Homogeneous Topology Control
sult of the theory of continuum percola-
tion is that there exists a finite, positive First, we consider the following prob-
value λc of λ, called critical density under lem concerning homogeneous range
which the percolation probability is zero assignments:
and above which it is nonzero. However,
Definition 5.1 CTR (Critical Transmit-
no explicit expression of the percolation
ting Range). Suppose n nodes are placed
probability is known to date. The theory
in R = [0, l ]d , with d = 1, 2, 3. What is
of continuum percolation have been used
the minimum value of r such that the r-
in Dousse et al. [2002], and Gupta and
homogeneous range assignment for this
Kumar [1998] to analyze the connectivity
placement is connecting?
of ad hoc networks.
In the occupancy theory [Kolchin et al. The minimum value of r such that the
1978], it is assumed that n balls are r-homogeneous range assignment is con-
thrown independently, at random, into C necting is known as the critical trans-
cells. The allocation of balls into cells can mitting range for connectivity in the
be characterized by means of random vari- literature.
ables describing some property of the cells. The motivation for studying CTR stems
The occupancy theory is aimed at deter- from the fact that, in many situations
mining the probability distribution of such the dynamically-adjusting node transmit-
variables as n and C grow to infinity (i.e., ting range is not feasible. In fact, in-
the limit distribution). The most studied expensive radio transceivers might not
random variable is the number of empty allow the transmission range to be ad-
cells after all the balls have been thrown, justed [Ramanathan and Rosales-Hain
which we denote µ(n, C). Of course, the 2000]. In this scenario, setting the same
limit distribution of µ(n, C) depends on the transmitting range r for all the units
relative magnitude of n and C, that is, on is a reasonable choice, and the only op-
the asymptotic behavior of ρ = n/C. De- tion to reduce power consumption and
pending on the asymptotic behavior of ρ, increase network capacity is to set r to
five domains such that n, C → ∞ for which the minimum possible value that ensures
the limit distribution of ρ(n, C) is differ- connectivity.
ent have been determined. Depending on Characterizing the critical transmitting
the domain, the limit distribution can be range helps the system designer to an-
either Poisson or Normal with different swer fundamental questions such as given
parameters. The occupancy theory can be a number of nodes n to be deployed in a
used to analyze connectivity in ad hoc region R, what is the minimum value of
networks by subdividing the deployment the transmitting range that ensures net-
region R into equal subregions (cells) of work connectivity? Conversely, for a given
size ≈ r d and by determining under which transmitter technology, how many nodes

172 P. Santi
5.1.1. Dense Networks. The probabilistic

theory that is most suited to the anal-
ysis of CTR is the theory of geometric
random graphs (see Section 4). Since
the critical transmitting range coincides
with the length of the longest edge in
the Euclidean MST, probabilistic solutions
to CTR can be derived by using results
concerning the asymptotic distribution of
the longest MST edge Penrose [1999c,
1997]. This approach has been used in
Panchapakesan and Manjunath [2001]
to prove that, under the hypothesis that
nodes are uniformly distributed in [0, 1]2 ,

the critical transmitting range for connec-
tivity with high probability is r = c logn n
Fig. 3. The CTR for connectivity is the for some constant c > 0. The charac-
length of the longest edge of the Euclidean
MST (edge e). terizations of the critical range for con-
nectivity in one- and three-dimensional
networks can be obtained by combining
some results derived in Dette and Henze
[1989], Holst [1980], and Penrose [1999c,
must be distributed over a given region to
1997, 1999a] and are as follows. In one-
ensure network connectivity?
dimensional networks, it is shown that
The solution to CTR depends on the
if n nodes are distributed uniformly at
information we have about the physical
random in [0, 1], then the critical range
placement of nodes. If the node placement
for connectivity with high probability is
is known in advance, the critical trans-
mitting range is the length of the longest r = logn n . In three-dimensional networks,
edge of the Euclidean MST [Penrose 1997; it is shown that if n nodes are distributed
Sanchez et al. 1999] built on the nodes uniformly at random in [0, 1]3 , then the
(see Figure 3). Unfortunately, in many critical range for connectivity with high
realistic scenarios of ad hoc or sensor net- probability is
works, the node placement is not known in
advance. For example, in WSNs, sensors log n − log log n 3 1.41 + g (n)
r= + ·
3
could be spread from a moving vehicle ,

nπ 2 πn
(airplane, ship, or spacecraft). If node po-
sitions are not known, the minimum value where g (n) is an arbitrary function such
of r ensuring √connectivity in all possible that limn→∞ g (n) = +∞.
cases is r ≈ l d , which accounts for the A notable result of the theory of GRG is
fact that nodes could be concentrated at that, under the assumption of uniformly
opposite corners of the deployment region. distributed points and d ≥ 2, the longest
However, this scenario is unlikely in most nearest-neighbor link and the longest
realistic situations. For this reason, CTR MST edge have the same value (asymp-
has been studied under the assumption totically, as n → ∞) [Penrose 1999c].
that nodes are distributed in R accord- In terms of the resulting communication
ing to some probability distribution. In graph, this means that connectivity oc-
this case, the goal is to characterize curs (asymptotically) when the last iso-
the minimum value of r which provides lated node disappears from the graph.
connectivity with high probability that is, This result reveals an interesting analogy
with a probability that converges to 1 as with non-geometric random graphs which
the number of nodes (or the side l of the display the same behavior (known as the
deployment region) increases. giant component phenomenon).

Although interesting, the theory of GRG The critical transmitting range for
can be used only to derive results con- connectivity in sparse ad hoc networks
cerning dense ad hoc networks. In fact, have been analyzed in Santi et al. [2001]
a standard assumption in this theory is and Santi and Blough [2003, 2002] using
that the deployment region R is fixed, and the occupancy theory. It has been proven
the asymptotic behavior of r as n grows to that, under the assumption that n nodes
infinity is investigated, that is, the node are distributed uniformly at random in
density is assumed to grow to infinity. A R = [0, l ]d , the r-homogeneous range
similar limitation applies to the model of
assignment is connecting with high prob-
Gupta and Kumar [1998]. In their case, R ability if r = l d c logn l for some constant
is the disk of unit area, and the authors c > 0. The authors also prove that, if
show that if the units’ transmitting range
r ∈ O(l d n1 ), then the r-homogeneous
is set to r = log n+c(n)
πn
, then the resulting
range assignment is not connected with
network is connected with high probabil-
high probability.
ity if and only if c(n) → ∞. This result is
obtained making use of the theory of
continuum percolation Meester and Roy
[1996] which is also used in Dousse et al. 5.1.3. More Practical Characterizations of
[2002] to investigate the connectivity of the CTR. Besides analytical characteriza-
hybrid ad hoc networks in which base station, the critical transmitting range has
tions can be used to improve connectivity. been investigated from a more practi-
cal viewpoint. In Narayanaswamy et al.
[2002], the authors present a distributed
5.1.2. Sparse Networks. Given the pre- protocol, called COMPOW, that attempts
ceding discussion, the applicability of the- to determine the minimum common trans-
oretical results concerning connectivity mitting range needed to ensure network
in ad hoc networks to realistic scenarios connectivity. They show that setting the
could be impaired. In fact, it is known transmitting range to this value has
that real wireless networks cannot be too the beneficial effects of maximizing net-
dense, due to the problem of spatial reuse: work capacity, reducing the contention to
when a node is transmitting, it interferes access the wireless channel, and mini-
with all the nodes within its interference mizing energy consumption. Bettstetter
range which is typically larger than the [2002a] analyzes network connectivity un-
transmitting range. If the node density is der the assumption that some of the nodes
very high, the level of interference is very have transmitting range r1 , and the re-
high as well, and the overall network ca- maining ones have transmitting range
pacity is compromised [Gupta and Kumar r2
= r1 . Santi and Blough [2003] in-
2000]. vestigate through simulation the trade-
In order to circumvent this problem, off between the transmitting range and
other authors have characterized the criti- the size of the largest connected compo-
cal transmitting range in the more general nent in the communication graph. The
model in which the side l of the deploy- experimental results presented in Santi
ment region is a further parameter, and and Blough [2003] show that, in sparse
n and r can be arbitrary functions of l . In two and three-dimensional networks, the
this case, the critical transmitting range is transmitting range can be reduced signif-
analyzed asymptotically as l → ∞. Note icantly if weaker requirements on connec-
that, using this model, the node density tivity are acceptable: halving the critical
might either converge to 0 or to a con- transmitting range, the largest connected
stant c > 0, or diverge as the size of the component has an average size of ap-
deployment region grows to infinity. Thus, proximately 0.9n. This means that a con-
results based on this framework can be siderable amount of energy is spent to
applied to dense as well as sparse ad hoc connect relatively few nodes. This be-
networks. havior is not displayed in the case of

174 P. Santi
one-dimensional networks in which a limn→∞ f (n) = +∞. The problem of

small decrease of the transmitting range ensuring k-connectivity in ad hoc net-
with respect to the critical value split the works has been studied also in Bettstetter
network into at least two connected com- [2002b].
ponents of moderate size. Quite interest- Another model considers the problem
ingly, the experimental analysis of Santi of ensuring connectivity in networks with
and Blough [2003] is coherent with the Bernoulli nodes. In this model, it is as-
theoretical result of the theory of GRG sumed that, at any instant of time, any
(which, we recall, can be applied only to node in the network is active with a cer-
dense ad hoc networks) concerning the tain constant probability p > 0. Since
giant component phenomenon occurring node activation periods are independent
in two and three-dimensional networks. events, the node active/inactive status can
This seems to indicate that, in the case of be modeled by a Bernoulli random vari-
sparse ad hoc networks, connectivity also able of parameter p. The study of ad hoc
occurs (asymptotically) when the last iso- networks with Bernoulli nodes finds its
lated node disappears from the communi- motivation in the fact that, in many ap-
cation graph. plication scenarios (especially for WSNs),
nodes alternately shut down their radio to
5.1.4. Other Characterizations of the Critical save energy. In this context, it is impor-
Range. The critical transmitting range tant that the subnetwork composed of ac-
for connectivity has also been studied un- tive nodes is connected (active connectiv-
der the assumption of nonuniform node ity). Furthermore, it is desirable that any
distribution. In particular, Penrose [1998] inactive node is adjacent to at least one ac-
has characterized the critical range when tive node (active domination) so that it can
nodes are distributed according to the quickly propagate alarm messages in case
two-dimensional Normal distribution, and an anomalous condition is detected (we re-
to arbitrary probability density functions call that inactive nodes still sense the envi-
[Penrose 1999b] (provided certain techni- ronment – it is only the radio that is turned
cal conditions are satisfied). off). Denoting with G(n, r) the GRG graph
Other authors have considered the crit- with n nodes and transmitting range r,
ical transmitting range for k-connectivity with A(n, r, p) the subgraph of G(n, r) in-
of the communication graph,4 that is, the duced by the set of active nodes, and with
critical range for ensuring a certain degree I (n, r, p) the subgraph of G(n, r) obtained
of fault-tolerance in the network. By ex- by removing all edges whose endpoints are
ploiting a result due to Penrose [1999a], both inactive nodes, active connectivity
showing that when the minimum node de- is obtained when A(n, r, p) is connected,
gree in a GRG becomes k, the graph be- and active domination when I (n, r, p) is
comes k-connected with high probability. connected. By combining the results pre-
(this result holds only for two- and three- sented in Yi et al. [2003] and in Yi and
dimensional networks), Wan and Yi [2004] Wan [2005], it can be shown that with high
have derived the following characteriza- probability the critical range for connec-
tion of the critical range for k-connectivity tivity in A(n, r, p) and in I (n, r, p) under
in two-dimensional networks with uni- the assumption of uniformly distributed
formly distributed points nodes is the same, and it equals

log n + (2k − 3) log log n + f (n) log n + f (n)
r= , r= ,
πn π pn
where k > 1 is an arbitrary constant,
and f (n) is a function such that where f (n) is a function such that
limn→∞ f (n) = +∞.
4 We recall that a graph is k-connected if removing Another problem considered is the char-
any k − 1 nodes does not disconnect the graph. acterization of the critical coverage range.

Network coverage is defined as follows: ev- time (more specifically, in time O(n4 )) in
ery node covers a circular area of radius rc , the one-dimensional case (i.e., nodes in a
and the monitored area R is covered if ev- line), while it is shown to be NP-hard in
ery point of R is at a distance of at most the case of three-dimensional networks. In
rc from at least one node. The goal is to a later paper, Clementi et al. [1999] have
find the critical value of rc that ensures shown that RA is NP-hard also in the two-
coverage with high probability. This prob- dimensional case. Thus, computing the
lem has been investigated in Philips et al. optimal range assignment in two and
[1989] for the case of nodes distributed in three-dimensional networks is a virtually
a square with a side of length l according impossible task. However, the optimal so-
to a Poisson process of fixed density. The lution can be approximated within a factor
critical transmitting and coverage range of 2 using the range assignment generated
for Poisson distributed points on a line of as follows [Kirousis et al. 2000]. Let T be
length l is derived in Piret [1991]. the MST built on N , where the weight of
edge (ui , u j ) is the power δuαi ,u j needed to
5.2. Nonhomogeneous Topology Control transmit a message between ui and u j ; for
every node ui ∈ N , define RA(ui ) as the
In the previous Section, we have analyzed maximum of distances δui ,u j , for all nodes
the problem of determining a minimum u j which are neighbors of ui in T . In the
common value of the transmitting range following, we will denote this range as-
that generates a connected communica- signment with RAMST .
tion graph under the hypothesis that only Several variants of RA have been consid-
probabilistic information about node po- ered in the literature. In Clementi et al.
sitions is available. In this Section, we [1999, 2000a, 2000b] and Kirousis et al.
survey the considerable body of results ob- [2000], the focus is on a constrained ver-
tained for the more general problem in sion of RA in which the additional require-
which nodes are allowed to have differ- ment of having a communication graph
ent transmitting ranges. As in the case with diameter at most h, for some constant
of homogeneous topology control, in this h < n, is imposed on the communication
Section, we only report results concern- graph. However, we believe this version
ing the stationary case. Nonhomogeneous of the problem is less interesting from a
topology control techniques for mobile net- practical point of view. In fact, imposing
works will be discussed in Section 6. a topology which is too connected would
often cause communication interference
5.2.1. The Range Assignment Problem. to occur even between nodes that are far
The problem of assigning a transmit- apart, thus decreasing the network capac-
ting range to nodes in such a way that ity. This phenomenon is confirmed by the-
the resulting communication graph is oretical as well as experimental results
strongly connected and the energy cost is [Grossglauser and Tse 2001; Gupta and
minimum is called the range assignment Kumar 2000; Li et al. 2001] which show
problem (RA), and it was first studied in that the communication graph in wireless
Kirousis et al. [2000]. More formally, the ad hoc networks should be as sparse as
problem is defined as follows. possible, while preserving connectivity.
Definition 5.2 RA. Let N = {u1 , . . . , un } Two important variants of RA which
be a set of points in the d -dimensional have been recently studied are based
space (d = 1, 2, 3), denoting the positions on the concept of symmetry of the
of the network nodes. Determine a con- communication graph. In general, the
necting range assignment RA such that communication graph generated by a
range assignment is not symmetric,
c(RA) = ui ∈N (RA(ui ))α is minimum.
that is, it might contain unidirectional
The computational complexity of RA has links. Although implementing wireless
been analyzed in Kirousis et al. [2000]. unidirectional links is technically feasible
The problem is solvable in polynomial (see Bao and Garcia-Luna-Aceves [2001],

176 P. Santi
α
Kim et al. [2001], Pearlman et al. [2000], connected, and c(RA) = ui ∈N (RA(ui )) is
Prakash [2001], and Ramasubrama- minimum.
nian et al. [2002] for unidirectional link
support at different layers), the actual Definition 5.5 SRA. Let N = {u1 , . . . ,
advantage of using unidirectional links un } be a set of points in the d -dimensional
is questionable. For example, in Marina space (d = 1, 2, 3), denoting the positions
and Das [2002] the authors have shown of the network nodes. A range assignment
that the high overhead needed to handle RA is said to be symmetric if it generates
unidirectional links in routing protocols a communication graph which contains
outweighs the benefits that they can only bidirectional links, that is, RA(ui ) ≥
provide, and better performance can be δui ,u j ⇔ RA(u j ) ≥ δui ,u j . Determine a
achieved by simply avoiding them. The connecting symmetric range assignment
α
high overhead is due to the fact that RA such that c(RA) = ui ∈N (RA(ui )) is
low-level protocols, such as the MAC minimum.
(Medium Access Control) protocol, are In SRA (Symmetric Range Assignment),
naturally designed to work under the it is required that the communication
symmetric assumption. For instance, the graph contains only bidirectional links.
MAC protocol defined in the IEEE 802.11 This requirement is weakened in WSRA
standard [IEEE 1999] is based on RTS (Weakly Symmetric Range Assignment) in
- CTS message exchange: when node ui which unidirectional links may exist, but
wishes to send a message to one of its they are not essential for connectivity. The
neighbors u j (at this level, communication motivation for studying WSRA stems from
is only between immediate neighbors), the observation that what is really impor-
it sends a RTS (Request To Send) to u j , tant in the design of ad hoc networks is the
and waits for a CTS (Clear To Send) existence of a connected backbone of sym-
message from u j . If the CTS message is metric edges. In other words, there could
not received within a certain time, then exist further edges for which symmetry
message transmission is aborted, and it is is not guaranteed, but these links can be
tried again after a backoff interval. Hence, ignored without compromising network
for the protocol to work, ui must be within connectivity.
the transmitting range of u j , that is, the In Blough et al. [2002], it is shown
range assignment must be symmetric. that SRA remains NP-hard in two and
The symmetric range assignment prob- three-dimensional networks. Hence, im-
lem have been independently defined posing (weak) symmetry does not reduce
and studied in Blough et al. [2002] and the computational complexity of the prob-
Calinescu et al. [2002]. In Blough et al. lem. The authors of Blough et al. [2002]
[2002], two different symmetric restric- have also investigated the relations be-
tions of RA are considered. tween the energy cost of the optimal so-
Definition 5.3 Symmetric Subgraph. lutions of RA, WSRA, and SRA. Denoting
Let G = (N , E) be an arbitrary commu- these costs with cRA , cWS , and c S , respec-
nication graph. The symmetric subgraph tively, we have cWS − cRA ∈ O(1), and
of G, denoted G S , is obtained from G by c S −cRA ∈ (n). In other words, this means
deleting all the unidirectional links, that that the requirement for weak symme-
is, all the edges such that (u, v) ∈ E, but try has only a marginal effect on the en-
(v, u) ∈
/ E. ergy cost of the range assignment, while
it eases significantly the integration of
Definition 5.4 WSRA. Let N = {u1 , . . . , topology control mechanisms with exist-
un } be a set of points in the d -dimensional ing higher-level protocols (e.g., routing).
space (d = 1, 2, 3), denoting the positions On the other hand, imposing the stronger
of the network nodes. Determine a con- requirement of symmetry incurs a consid-
necting range assignment RA such that erable additional energy cost. Overall, we
the symmetric subgraph G S of the com- can conclude that weak symmetry is a de-
munication graph resulting from RA is sirable property of the range assignment.

Calinescu et al. [2002] introduce two puting topologies which have energy-
polynomial approximation algorithms for efficient paths between potential source-
WSRA which improve on the approxima- destination pairs. More specifically, the
tion ratio of 2, previously known.5 The first following problem has been considered
algorithm has an approximation ratio of (see Li et al. [2002] and Rajaraman
1 + ln 2 ≈ 1.69, while the second, which is [2002]).
more computationally efficient, has an ap- Let G be the communication graph ob-
proximation ratio of 15 8
. These ratios have tained when all the nodes transmit at
been recently have been recently improved maximum power (the maxpower graph),
for any positive constant to 53 + , and to and assume G is connected. Every edge
11 (ui , u j ) in G is weighted with the power
, respectively [Althaus et al. 2003]. Fur-
6 δuαi ,u j needed to transmit a message be-
ther, the authors of Althaus et al. [2003]
present an exact branch and cut algorithm tween ui and u j . Given any path P =
for solving WSRA based on a new integer u1 , u2 , . . . , uk in G, the power cost of P
linear program formulation of the prob- is defined as the sum of the power costs
lem. Experimental results show that the of the single edges, that is, pc(P ) =
k−1 α
branch and cut algorithm solves instances i=1 δui ,ui+1 . Let pcG (u, v) denote the min-
with up to 35-40 nodes (with randomly imum of pc(P ) over all paths P that
generated positions) in 1 hour. Most im- connect nodes u and v in G. A path in
portantly, the experimental results show G connecting u and v and consuming
that the average improvement of the ex- the minimum power pcG (u, v) is called a
act solution over RAMST , which can be eas- minimum-power path between u and v.
ily calculated, is in the range 4–6%. This Let G be an arbitrary subgraph of G. The
means that the average case approxima- power stretch factor of G with respect to
tion ratio of RAMST is much smaller than G is the maximum over all possible node
the worst case ratio of 2. pairs of the ratio between the cost of the
The problem of ensuring k-connectivity minimum-power path in G and in G. For-
(i.e., fault-tolerance) of the communication mally, ρG = maxu,v∈N pc G (u,v)
pcG (u,v)
.
graph has also been considered in the lit- The power stretch factor is a generaliza-
erature. It was first studied in Loyd et al. tion of the concept of distance stretch factor
[2002] in the weakly symmetric version which is well known in computational ge-
when k = 2, and further analyzed in ometry. Another similar concept is the hop
Calinescu and Wan [2003]. In particular, stretch factor, which measures the ratio of
Calinescu and Wan prove that the weakly the hopcounts rather than that of power
symmetric version of the problem, with or distance.
k = 2 is NP-hard, and they provide In general, we would like to identify a
approximation algorithms for both the subgraph G (also called a routing graph
weakly symmetric and asymmetric ver- in the following) of the maxpower graph G
sion of the problem. which has a low-power stretch factor and
5.2.2. Minimum Energy Unicast and which is sparser than the original graph.
Broadcast The routing graph can be used to compute
routes between nodes with the guaran-
5.2.2.1. Unicast. In the previous Section, tee that the power needed to communicate
the emphasis was on finding a range along these routes is almost minimal. The
assignment that generates a connected advantage of using G instead of G is that
topology of minimum energy cost. An- computing the optimal routes in G is eas-
other branch of research focused on com- ier than in G and generates little message
overhead, and that a sparse communica-
5 Itcan be easily observed that the RAMST range as- tion graph requires little maintenance in
signment used in Kirousis et al. [2000] to approx-
imate RA within a factor of 2 is weakly symmet-
the presence of node mobility.
ric. This observation has been used in Blough et al. Given the maxpower graph G, the prob-
[2002] to prove that cWS − cRA ∈ O(1). lem of computing a subgraph G with

178 P. Santi
Fig. 4. Edges in the relative neighborhood graph (left) and in the gabriel graph (right).
low-power stretch factor has been widely Several routing graphs that satisfy
studied in the literature. Ideally, the some of the previous requirements have
routing graph should have the following been proposed in the literature. Most of
features: them are based on subgraphs of G which
have been shown to be good distance span-
(a) constant power stretch factor, that is, ners. In fact, it can be easily seen that,
ρG ∈ O(1). Using the terminology of if a subgraph G is a distance spanner of
geometric graphs, G should be a power graph G, then it is also a power spanner
spanner of G; of G (note that the reverse implication, in
(b) linear number of edges, in other words, general, is not true). Thus, the consider-
G should be sparse; able body of research devoted to distance
(c) bounded node degree, and spanners in computational geometry can
(d) easily computable in a distributed be used to design good routing graphs.
and localized fashion. By localized, we The following geometric graphs have
mean that every node should be able to been considered in the literature.
compute the set of its neighbors in G Definition 5.6 Let N be a set of points
using only information provided by its in the Euclidean two-dimensional space.
neighbor nodes in G.
Property (a) ensures that the routes cal- The Relative Neighborhood Graph
culated on G are at most a constant fac- (RNG) of N has an edge between two
tor away from the energy-optimal routes. nodes ui and u j if there is no node uk
Property (b) eases the task of finding such that max{δui ,uk , δu j ,uk } ≤ δui ,u j (see
routes in G and of maintaining the rout- Figure 4(a)).
ing graph in the presence of node mobil- The Gabriel Graph (GG) of N has an
ity, and it reduces the routing overhead. edge between two nodes ui and u j if there
The requirement of bounded node degree is no node uk such that δu2i ,uk +δu2 j ,uk ≤ δu2i ,u j ;
is motivated by the fact that nodes with a in other words, (ui , u j ) ∈ GG(N ) if and only
high degree are likely to be bottlenecks in if the disk obtained using ui u j as its diam-
the communication graph. Finally, prop- eter does not contain any node from N (see
erty (d) is fundamental for a fast and Figure 4(b)).
effective computation of the routing graph The Delaunay Graph (DG) of N is
in a real wireless ad hoc network. the unique triangulation such that the

circumcircle of every triangle contains no Table I. Distance Stretch Factor, Power Stretch
points of N in its interior; Factor, and Maximum Node Degree of Different
Proximity Graphs
The Yao Graph (YG) of N of parameter c Distance Power Degree
for any integer c ≥ 6 is denoted YGc , and is RNG n−1 n−1 n−1
√
defined as follows. At each node ui ∈ N , GG n−1 1 n−1
√ √ α
any c equally separated rays originated 1+ 5 1+ 5
RDG π π
(n)
at ui define c equal cones. In each cone, 2 2
choose the shortest directed edge (ui , u j ) ∈ YGc 1

1−2 sin πc
1
1−(2 sin πc )α
n−1
G, if any, and add the correspondent di-
rected edge in YGc . If we add the reverse
directed link from u j to ui , we obtain the been proposed with the purpose of bound-
Reverse Yao Graph. If we ignore the direc- ing the maximum node degree. Unfortu-
tion of edges, we have the Undirected Yao nately, it has been shown that no geo-
Graph. metric graph with constant node degree
Note that, in general, the DG of a set contains the minimum power path for any
of points may include edges much longer pair of nodes [Wang et al. 2002]. Thus, no
than the maximum node transmitting energy-optimal spanner with a constant
range. For this reason, a restricted version bounded maximum node degree exists.
of DG has been introduced in Gao et al. To date, the routing graph with constant
[2001] in which a limit on the maximum maximum node degree which has the best
edge length is imposed. We denote the re- power stretch factor is the OrdYaoGG
stricted DG graph of a set of points N with graph of Song et al. [2004] which is ob-
RDG(N ). tained by building the YGc graph, with c >
The graphs defined are called proximity 6, on top of the GG. The OrdYaoGG graph
graphs since the set of neighbors of any has a power stretch factor of ρ = 1−(2 sin
1
π α,
c)
node u in the computed graph can be calcu- and maximum node degree of c + 5, where
lated based on the position of the neighbor c > 6 is the parameter of the Yao graph.
nodes in the original graph. Thus, proxim- For example, setting c = 9 and α = 2, we
ity graphs satisfy property(d). have a power stretch factor of 1.88 with a
The following relationships between bound on the maximum node degree of 14.
proximity graphs have been proven
[Goodman and O’Rourke 1997; Li et al. 5.2.2.2. Broadcast. Another relevant
2002]: for any set of points N , RNG(N ) ⊆ problem that has been considered in the
GG(N ), and RNG(N ) ⊆ YGc (N ), for any literature is the determination of energy-
c ≥ 6. Furthermore, MST(N ) is contained efficient broadcast graphs. Here, the
in RNG(N ), GG(N ), DG(N ) and YGc (N ), emphasis is on the one-to-all communi-
for any c ≥ 6. cation scheme typical of broadcast rather
The distance stretch factor, the power than on point–to–point communications.
stretch factor, and the maximum node Similarly to the case of unicast, the
degree of the proximity graphs defined concept of broadcast stretch factor can be
previously have been analyzed in Gao defined. More precisely, let us consider a
et al. [2001], Li et al. [2002], and Wang connected maxpower graph G. Any broad-
et al. [2003] and are reported in Table I. cast generated by node u can be seen
As shown, the Gabriel Graph is energy- as a directed spanning tree T , rooted at
optimal since it has a power stretch factor u, which we call a broadcast tree. The
of 1. power cost of the broadcast tree T is
All the graphs defined previously have defined as follows. Denoting with pcT (v)
been shown to be sparse which implies the power consumed by node v to broad-
that they have a constant average node cast the message along T , we have that
degree. However, the maximum node de- pcT (v) = 0 for any leaf node of T , and
α
gree is not constant in any of the con- pcT (v) = max(v,w)∈T δv,w otherwise. Thus,
sidered graphs. For this reason, several the total power needed to broadcast the
variants of these proximity graphs have message along the broadcast tree T is

180 P. Santi

pc(T ) = v∈N pcT (v). A tree in G rooted local approximation of the MST. LMSTk
at u and consuming the minimum power requires exchanging O(n) messages (al-
is called a minimum-power broadcast tree though the hidden constant is larger than
of u. Let G be an arbitrary subgraph of 225), and builds a O(nα−1 ) approxima-
G. The broadcast stretch factor of G with tion of the energy-optimal broadcast tree.
respect to G is the maximum over all pos- Thus, LMSTk cannot be used to com-
sible nodes of the ratio between the cost of pute a broadcast spanner of G. To date,
the minimum-power broadcast tree in G no distributed and localized algorithm
and in G. Formally, βG = maxu∈N pc G (u)
pcG (u)
, that constructs a broadcast spanner is
where pcG (u) and pcG (u) denote the cost known.
of the minimum-power broadcast tree of u Before ending this section, we want to
in G and in G, respectively. outline the similarities between the range
As in the case of unicast, the goal is to assignment problem discussed in Section
find sparse broadcast spanners6 that can 5.2.1 and the problem of energy-efficient
be computed in a distributed and localized broadcast. Suppose G is the maxpower
fashion. Unfortunately, this task is more graph on the set of points N . In the RA
difficult than in the case of unicast. problem, the goal is to find the energy-
The problem of computing a minimum- optimal range assignment that generates
power broadcast tree rooted at a node u a connected communication graph. Sup-
has been proven to be NP-hard indepen- pose an arbitrary node u ∈ N wants to
dently in Cagali et al. [2002] and Liang broadcast a message m, and let RA be the
[2002], under the hypothesis that nodes optimal range assignment. A very simple
can transmit at different power levels broadcast scheme is the following. Node
P = { p1 , . . . , pk }, where the pi are ar- u transmits m at distance RA(u), and ev-
bitrary power levels, and k is an arbi- ery other node v, upon receiving m for the
trary positive constant. Thus, the task first time, retransmits it at distance RA(v).
of finding the energy-optimal broadcast It is immediate that, after all nodes in
tree of a given communication graph G N have transmitted the message once, m
is virtually impossible in any realistic has been broadcast to all network nodes.
scenario. Thus, the energy cost of RA is an upper
Wieselthier et al. [2000] introduce three bound to the power cost of any broad-
greedy heuristics for the minimum-power cast tree in G. We recall that the energy
broadcast problem based on the con- cost of the optimal range assignment (and
struction of the MST and evaluate them of the optimal weakly-symmetric range
by means of simulation. The broadcast assignment) differs from the cost of the
stretch factor of the graphs generated by MST at most by factor 2. Since the MST
these heuristics are formally derived in is a broadcast spanner of G, this im-
Wan et al. [2002] where it is shown that plies that the communication graph gen-
the MST has a constant broadcast stretch erated by the optimal (weakly-symmetric)
factor c for some 6 ≤ c ≤ 12. Thus, the range assignment is a broadcast spanner
MST is a broadcast spanner of the original of G. Unfortunately this does not help
graph. Unfortunately, the construction of very much since computing this graph in
the MST, as well as of the other graphs pro- two and three-dimensional networks is
posed in Wieselthier et al. [2000], requires NP-hard.
global information which can be a major
difficulty in implementing it in a real ad
hoc network. In order to circumvent this 5.2.3. Distributed Topology Control Protocols.
problem, Li et al. [2004] have recently In Sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2, we have
proposed a localized, fully distributed reviewed several problems related to
algorithm called LMSTk that builds a energy-efficient communication in wire-
less ad hoc networks. In these ap-
6A subgraph G of graph G is a broadcast spanner of proaches to TC, it was assumed that exact
G if it has O(1) broadcast stretch factor. node positions are known (location-based

topology control), and the problem is one of with high probability) composed of
finding a range assignment (and, thus, a bidirectional links7 ;
network topology) which is optimal with — rely on low quality information.
respect to a certain measure. Hence in
these approaches, the emphasis is on the 5.2.3.1. Location-Based TC Protocols. In
quality of the topology produced rather Rodoplu and Meng [1999], the authors
than on the process of building the topol- presented a distributed topology control
ogy itself. Another branch of research fo- algorithm that leverages on location in-
cused on more practical approaches to formation (provided by low-power GPS re-
the TC problem, trying to design sim- ceivers) to build a topology that is proven
ple, fully distributed protocols that build to minimize the energy required to com-
and maintain a reasonably good topology. municate with a given master node. In Li
We call these protocols topology control and Wan [2001], the authors described a
protocols. more efficient implementation of the pro-
Ideally, a topology control protocol tocol which, however, computes only an ap-
should be fully distributed, asynchronous, proximation of the minimum energy topol-
and localized. As discussed previously, ogy.
these requirements are vital for an effec- In Ramanathan and Rosales-Hain
tive implementation of the protocol, espe- [2000], the authors considered the prob-
cially in the presence of node mobility. An- lem of minimizing the maximum of node
other aspect to be considered is the quality transmitting ranges while achieving
of the information needed by the topology connectedness. They also considered the
control protocol. In general, there is a stronger requirement of 2-connectivity of
trade-off between information quality and the communication graph. They present
energy consumption and/or interference centralized topology control algorithms
reduction: the more accurate the informa- that provide the optimal solution for both
tion required (e.g., exact node positions), versions of the problem. The range as-
the more energy savings/interference signment returned by the algorithm has
reductions can be achieved. However, the the additional property of being per-node
price to be paid (in terms of additional minimal, that is, no transmitting range
hardware on the nodes or of additional can be reduced further without impairing
messages to be exchanged) to obtain high connectivity (or 2-connectivity).
quality information must be carefully con- In Li et al. [2003], the authors intro-
sidered. For example, suppose protocol P1 duced LMST, a fully distributed and local-
is based on location information, and pro- ized protocol aimed at building an MST-
tocol P2 is based on distance estimation. like topology. The authors show that (1)
Clearly, the cost of implementing P2 in a the protocol generates a strongly con-
real network is lower than that required nected communication graph; (2) the node
by P1 since the hardware needed to esti- degree of any node in the generated topol-
mate distance between nodes is cheaper ogy is at most 6; and (3) the topology can be
than that required to estimate node po- made symmetric by removing asymmetric
sitions. So, if the energy savings provided links without impairing connectivity. Fur-
by protocol P1 are not considerably higher thermore, the authors show through simu-
than those achieved by P2 , a solution lation that LMST outperforms CBTC (see
based on protocol P2 may be preferable in the following) and the protocol of Rodoplu
practice. and Meng [1999] in terms of both aver-
Summarizing, a topology control proto- age node degree and average node trans-
col should: mitting range. A drawback of LMST is
that it requires location information that
can be provided only with a considerable
— be fully distributed and asynchronous;
— rely on local information only; 7 The motivation for using bidirectional links is given
— generate a connected topology (at least in Section 5.2.1.

182 P. Santi
hardware and/or message cost. Recently, 5.2.3.3. Neighbor-Based TC Protocols. An-

some of the authors of LMST introduced other class of topology control protocols
a fault-tolerant version of this algorithm is based on the simple idea of connecting
which generates a k-connected topology each node to its k closest-neighbors.
[Li and Hou 2004]. The MobileGrid protocol of Liu and
Li [2002] and the LINT protocol of
5.2.3.2. Direction-Based TC Protocols. In Ramanathan and Rosales-Hain [2000] try
Wattenhofer et al. [2001], the authors in- to keep the number of neighbors of a node
troduced a distributed topology control within a low and high threshold centered
protocol based on directional information, around an optimal value. When the ac-
called CBTC (Cone Based Topology Con- tual number of neighbors is below (above)
trol). The basic idea is similar to the one the threshold, the transmitting range is
inspiring the Yao graph YG: a node u increased (decreased), until the number
transmits with the minimum power pu,ρ of neighbors is in the proper range. How-
such that there is at least one neighbor in ever, for both protocols no characteriza-
every cone of angle ρ centered at u. The ob- tion of the optimal value of the number of
tained communication graph is made sym- neighbors is given and, consequently, no
metric by adding the reverse edge to every guarantee on the connectivity of the re-
asymmetric link. The authors show that sulting communication graph is provided.
setting ρ ≤ 2π/3 is a sufficient condition Another problem of the MobileGrid and
to ensure connectivity. A set of optimiza- LINT protocols is that they estimate the
tions aimed at pruning energy-inefficient number of neighbors by simply overhear-
edges without impairing connectivity (and ing control and data messages at different
symmetry) is also presented. Further, the layers. This approach has the advantage
authors prove that, if ρ ≤ π/2, every node of generating no control message overhead
in the final communication graph has de- but the accuracy of the resulting neighbor
gree of at most 6. A more detailed anal- number estimate heavily depends on the
ysis of CBTC, along with an improved traffic present in the network. In the ex-
set of optimizations (which, however, rely treme case, a node which remains silent is
on distance estimation), can be found in not detected by any of its actual neighbors.
Li et al. [2001]. The CBTC protocol has The problem of characterizing the min-
been extended to the case of nodes in the imum value of k such that the result-
three-dimensional space in Bahramgiri ing communication graph is connected
et al. [2002]. The authors of Bahramgiri (the Critical Neighbor Number) has been
et al. [2002] also presented a fault-tolerant investigated in Xue and Kumar [2004]
version of the protocol that guarantees where it is shown that k ∈
(log n) is a
k-connectivity. In Huang et al. [2002], the necessary and sufficient condition for con-
CBTC protocol is implemented using di- nectivity with high probability Recently,
rectional antennas.8 Wan and Yi [2004] have improved the up-
In Borbash and Jennings [2002], the per bound on the CNN for connectivity
authors introduced a distributed protocol derived in Xue and Kumar [2004].
which is also based on directional informa- Based on Xue and Kumar’s [2004] the-
tion. The goal of the protocol is to build the oretical result, Blough et al. [2003] pro-
Relative Neighbor Graph of the network pose the k-NEIGH protocol. The goal of
in a distributed fashion. The choice of the k-NEIGH is to keep the number of neigh-
RNG as the target graph of the protocol is bors of a node equal to, or slightly below, a
due to the fact that it guarantees connec- given value k. The communication graph
tivity, and it shows good performance in that results is made symmetric by remov-
terms of average transmitting range, node ing asymmetric edges. Given the charac-
degree, and hop diameter. terization of the critical neighbor num-
ber presented in Xue and Kumar [2004],
8 Directionalantennas have the ability to propagate Blough et al. [2003] prove that the com-
the radio signal only in specific directions. munication graph generated by k-NEIGH

Table II. Main Features of the Distributed Topology Control

Protocols Presented in this Article
Protocol Approach Connectivity Fault-Tolerance
R&M loc-based yes no
LMST loc-based yes yes
CBTC dir-based yes yes
RNG dir-based yes no
LINT/LILT neigh-based unknown no
MobileGrid neigh-based unknown no
KNeigh neigh-based w.h.p. no
XTC neigh-based yes no
when k ∈
(log n) is connected with high execution of a topology control protocol.
probability. From a practical viewpoint, On the other hand, the critical transmit-
Blough et al. [2003] show through simula- ting range for connectivity considered in
tion that setting k = 9 is sufficient to ob- Section 5.1 is representative of the sce-
tain connected networks with high proba- nario in which only a straightforward type
bility for networks with n ranging from 50 of topology control is feasible.
to 500. Furthermore, the authors analyze The following theorem is a consequence
the time and message complexity of the of the results presented in Santi and
protocol and present simulation results Blough [2003].
that show that the topology generated by
k-NEIGH is, on average, 20% more energy THEOREM 5.7 Let l be a positive real
efficient than that generated by CBTC. number sufficiently large, and let N be a
A protocol that shares many similar- set of n nodes positioned uniformly and in-
ities with k-NEIGH is the XTC protocol dependently at random in R = [0, l ]d , with
presented in Wattenhofer and Zollinger d = 1, 2, 3. Assume the distance-power gra-
[2004]: the neighbors of a node u are or- dient α is 2, and denote by cmin (N ) the cost
dered according to some metric (e.g., dis- of the r-homogeneous range assignment
tance or link quality), and u decides which such that r is minimum, and the resulting
nodes are kept as immediate neighbors communication graph is connected. Then,
in the final network topology based on a with high probability:
simple rule. Contrary to k-NEIGH, which  l 2 log2 l
achieves connectivity with high probabil- 
 O( n ) for d = 1
ity, XTC builds a topology which is con- cmin (N ) = O(l log l )
2
for d = 2
nected whenever the maxpower communi- 
 2/3
cation graph is connected. To achieve this, O(l n log l ) for d = 3.
2 1/3
the requirement of having an upper bound

k on the number of neighbors of a node is The bounds of Theorem 5.7 can be
dropped. Contrary to k-NEIGH, in XTC, a compared to similar bounds obtained in
node can have as much as n − 1 neighbors Blough et al. [2002], Clementi et al. [1999,
in the final topology. 2000a, 2000b], and Kirousis et al. [2000]
The main features of the distributed for the range assignment problem. The
topology control protocols presented in following result for one-dimensional net-
this section are summarized in Table II. works is an easy consequence of the re-
sults presented in Clementi et al. [2000a,
5.3. Discussion of Energy Cost 2000b] and Kirousis et al. [2000]:
The results of Sections 5.1 and 5.2 can PROPOSITION 5.8 Let N be a set of n
be used to evaluate the potential bene- collinear points equally spaced at distance
fit (in terms of energy cost) achieved by δ > 0. The energy cost of the solution of RA
topology control protocols. In fact, the so- on input N is
(δ 2 n).
lution to the range assignment problem
RA can be seen, at least to a certain ex- Assuming that the n nodes are placed
tent, as the best possible result of the along a line of length l , the bound of

184 P. Santi
2
Proposition 5.8 can be restated as
( ln ). It — Increased message overhead. The im-
is not difficult to show that equally spacing plementation of any distributed topol-
nodes is the most energy-efficient place- ogy control protocol causes a certain
ment. It follows that the energy cost of any message overhead which is due to the
instance (including a random one9 ) of RA fact that nodes need to exchange mes-
2 sages in order to set the transmitting
is ( ln ). Comparing this bound with the range to the appropriate value. In the
upper bound reported in Theorem 5.7 for case of stationary networks, the topol-
d = 1, we have that the asymptotic gap be- ogy control protocol is, in general, ex-
tween the energy cost of the optimal range ecuted once at the beginning of the
assignment and that of the optimal ho- network operational time, and then pe-
mogeneous range assignment is at most riodically to account for node join/leave.
log2 l . Hence, the asymptotic benefit of the Thus, the efficiency of the protocol (ex-
adoption of a topology control mechanism pressed here in terms of message over-
in one-dimensional networks is at most a head) has relatively little importance,
factor of log2 l . and the emphasis is more on the quality
Bounds on the energy cost of the solu- of the produced topology. In the pres-
tion of the random instance of RA in two ence of mobility, the topology control
and three dimensions have been obtained protocol must be executed frequently in
in Blough et al. [2002], and are
(l 2 ) for order to account for the new positions
d = 2, and
(l 2 n1/3 ) for d = 3. By Theorem of the nodes. Thus, reducing message
5.7, we can conclude that the asymptotic overhead is fundamental when imple-
benefit of the adoption of a topology control menting topology control mechanisms
mechanism is at most a factor of log l in in mobile networks (especially in the
two-dimensional networks, and at most a case of high mobility scenarios) even
factor of l o g 2/3l in three-dimensional net- if reducing message overhead comes at
works. the cost of a lower quality of the con-
The comparison of the bounds on the en- structed topology.
ergy cost of the optimal solution of RA and
— Nonuniform node spatial distribution.
CTR in one, two, and three-dimensional
As it will be discussed in detail later,
networks indicates that the benefit, ex-
some mobility patterns cause a nonuni-
pressed in terms of energy cost, of the
form node spatial distribution. This
adoption of a topology control mechanism
fact should be carefully taken into ac-
increases with the length l of the side
count in setting important network pa-
of the deployment region but becomes
rameters (e.g., the critical transmitting
less significant for networks of higher
range) at the design stage.
dimension.
From this discussion, it is clear that
6. MOBILE NETWORKS the impact of mobility on the effective-
ness of topology control techniques heav-
In Section 5, we have analyzed several ily depends on the mobility pattern. For
problems related to energy-efficient com- this reason, we first present the mobility
munication in stationary wireless ad hoc models which have been considered in the
networks. In this section, we will discuss literature.
how node mobility affects topology control
in general.
6.1. Mobility Models
The impact of mobility on topology con-
trol is twofold: The most widely used mobility model in
the ad hoc network community is the ran-
9 Here,
dom waypoint model [Johnson and Maltz
with random instance we mean an instance
of the problem in which node positions are chosen
1996]. In this model, every node chooses
uniformly at random in the deployment region R = uniformly at random a destination in
[0, l ]d . [0, l ]d (the waypoint) and moves towards

it along a straight line with a velocity cho- node moves far away from its position in
sen uniformly at random in the interval the previous step.
[vmin , vmax ]. When it reaches the destina- Observe that, in the case of random
tion, it remains stationary for a predefined direction or Brownian-like motion, nodes
pause time tpause , and then it starts moving may, in principle, move out of the deploy-
again according to the same rule. ment region. Since a standard approach in
A similar model is the random direc- simulations is to keep the number of net-
tion model [Bettstetter 2001; Royer et al. work nodes constant, we need a so-called
2001] in which nodes move with the di- border rule [Bettstetter 2001]/ that defines
rection chosen uniformly in the interval what to do with nodes that are about to
[0, 2π] and the velocity chosen uniformly leave the deployment region. In this situ-
at random in the interval [vmin , vmax ]. Af- ation, a node can be:
ter a randomly chosen time taken usually
from an exponential distribution, the node (1) bounced back according to some rule;
chooses a new direction. A similar proce- (2) positioned at the point of intersection
dure is used to change velocity, using an of the boundary with the line connect-
independent stochastic process. ing the current and the desired next
Contrary to the case of the random position;
waypoint and the random direction model (3) wrapped around to the other side of the
which resemble (at least to some extent) region which is considered as a torus;
intentional motion, the class of Brownian- (4) deleted, and a new node initialized ac-
like mobility models resembles noninten- cording to the initial distribution;
tional movement. For example, in the
model used in Blough et al. [2002], mo- (5) forced to choose another position until
bility is modeled using parameters pstat , the chosen position is inside the bound-
pmove , and m. Parameter pstat represents aries of the deployment region.
the probability that a node remains sta- Depending on the choice of the border
tionary during the entire simulation time. rule, nonuniformity in the node spatial
Hence, only (1 − pstat )n nodes (on the av- distribution can be produced. For example,
erage) will move. Introducing pstat into, the second rule described places nodes ex-
the model accounts for those situations in actly on the boundary of the region with
which some nodes are not able to move. For higher probability than at other points. In
example, this could be the case when sen- fact, the only two rules that do not appear
sors are spread from a moving vehicle, and to favor one part of the region over another
some of them remain entangled, for exam- are the torus rule (3) and rule (5) one in
ple, in a bush or tree. This can also model which a node is eliminated when it would
a situation where two types of nodes are cross the boundary and a new node is cre-
used, one type that is stationary and an- ated in its place. However, these rules ap-
other type that is mobile. Parameter pmove pear quite unrealistic and are used mainly
is the probability that a node moves at a to artificially generate a more uniform
given step. This parameter accounts for node spatial distribution.
heterogeneous mobility patterns in which For a more exhaustive survey of mo-
nodes may move at different times. Intu- bility models in wireless networks, the
itively, the smaller the value of pmove , the reader is referred to Bettstetter [2001] and
more heterogeneous the mobility pattern Camp et al. [2002].
is. However, values of pmove close to 0 re-
sult in an almost stationary network. If a
6.2. Homogeneous Topology Control
node is moving at step i, its position in step
i + 1 is chosen uniformly at random in the If deriving analytical results for station-
square of side 2m centered at the current ary networks is difficult, deriving theo-
node location. Parameter m models, to a retical results regarding mobile ad hoc
certain extent, the velocity of the nodes: networks is even more challenging, even
the larger m is, the more likely it is that a in the simpler case of topology control,

186 P. Santi
that is, in case of homogeneous range Unfortunately, the significance of the find-
assignment. ings of Sanchez et al. [1999] is partly im-
When the range assignment is homoge- paired by the fact that the toroidal border
neous, the message overhead is not an is- rule is used in simulations and that the
sue since the nodes’ transmitting range values of the mobility parameters used in
is set at the design stage, and it can- the experiments (such as t pause in the ran-
not be changed dynamically. However, the dom waypoint model) are not reported.
node spatial distribution generated by the Santi and Blough [2003, 2002] investi-
mobility model could be an issue. For gate the relationship between the critical
instance, it is known [Bettstetter 2001; transmitting range in stationary and in
Bettstetter and Krause 2001; Bettstetter mobile networks through extensive sim-
et al. 2003; Blough et al. 2002] that the ulation. They consider random waypoint
random waypoint model generates a node and Brownian-like motion and analyze
spatial distribution which is independent different critical values for the node trans-
of the initial node positions and in which mitting range that are representative of
nodes are concentrated in the center of different requirements on network con-
the deployment region. This phenomenon, nectivity (for instance, connectivity dur-
which is known as the border effect, is ing 100% and 90% of the simulation time).
due to the fact that, in the random way- The simulation results show that a rela-
point model, a node chooses a uniformly tively modest increase of the transmitting
distributed destination point rather than range with respect to the critical value
a uniformly distributed angle. Therefore, in the stationary case is sufficient to en-
nodes located at the border of the region sure network connectivity during 100% of
are very likely to cross the center of the the simulation time. The increase is about
region on their way to the next waypoint. 21% in the random waypoint and about
The intensity of the border effect mainly 25% in the Brownian-like model. Further-
depends on the pause time tpause . In fact, more, the simulation results show that the
a longer pause time tends to increase the transmitting range can be considerably re-
percentage of nodes that are resting at any duced (in the order of 35–40%) if the re-
given time. Since the starting and desti- quirement for connectivity is only on 90%
nation points of a movement are chosen of the simulation time.
uniformly in [0, l ]d , this implies that a rel- Further insights into the relationship
atively long pause time generates a more between the stationary and mobile criti-
uniform node spatial distribution. cal transmitting range can be derived from
An immediate consequence of the fact the statistical analysis of the node spatial
that the node spatial distribution in the distribution of mobile networks reported
presence of mobility is, in general, nonuni- in Blough et al. [2002]. Again, the authors
form is that results concerning the critical consider random waypoint and Brownian-
transmitting range in stationary networks like mobility and perform several statisti-
(which are based on the uniformity as- cal tests on the node spatial distribution
sumption) cannot be directly used. For this generated by these models. The results
reason, the relationship between the crit- of these tests show that the distribution
ical transmitting range with and without generated by Brownian-like motion is vir-
mobility must be carefully investigated. tually indistinguishable from the uniform
Sanchez et al. [1999] analyze the distribution and confirm the occurrence of
probability distribution of the critical the border effect in random waypoint mo-
transmitting range in the presence of dif- tion, whose intensity heavily depends on
ferent mobility patterns (random way- the value of tpause . In the extreme case of
point, random direction, and Brownian- tpause = 0, the random waypoint model gen-
like) through simulation. The simulation erates a node spatial distribution which is
results seem to indicate that the mobility considerably different from uniform. Over-
pattern has little influence on the distri- all, the analysis of Blough et al. [2002] in-
bution of the critical transmitting range. dicate that Brownian-like mobility should

have little influence on the value of the ogy is executed. In turn, this depends on
critical transmitting range, while the ef- several factors such as the mobility pat-
fect of random waypoint mobility on the tern and the properties of the topology
critical transmitting range should heav- generated by the protocol. To clarify this
ily depend on the settings of the mobility point, let us consider two topology con-
parameters. trol protocols P1 and P2 . Protocol P1 builds
The quality of the observation above is the MST in a distributed fashion and sets
confirmed by the probabilistic analysis re- the nodes’ transmitting range accordingly,
ported in Santi [2005] which is, to the while protocol P2 attempts to keep the
best of our knowledge, the only theoret- number of neighbors of each node below
ical result concerning the critical trans- a certain value k as in the k-NEIGH proto-
mitting range in the presence of mobility col of Blough et al. [2003]. Protocol P1 is
reported in the literature so far. Denot- based on global and very precise informa-
ing with r and rmp the critical transmitting tion, since the MST can be built only if the
range in the case of uniformly distributed exact position of every node in the network
nodes and of random waypoint mobile net- is known. In principle, P1 should be re-
works with t pause = p, respectively, and configured every time the relative position
with v = vmin = vmax the node velocity, the of any two nodes in the network changes
author shows that since this change could cause edge inser-
tion/removal in the MST. On the other
rmp p + 0.521405 hand, P2 can be easily computed in a lo-
= v
>1 calized fashion and can be implemented
r p using relatively inaccurate information
p
such as distance estimation. In this case,
if p > 0, and that rrm → ∞ otherwise the protocol should be reexecuted only
(asymptotically, as n → ∞). The author when the relative neighborhood relation
validates this result through simulations, of some node changes. It is quite intuitive
whose results show an interesting thresh- that this occurs less frequently than edge
old phenomenon: for small values of n (n≤ insertion/removal in the MST. It should
50), rmp is less than r, while for larger value also be observed that having a topology
of n the situation is reversed. This phe- that is not up-to-date is much more crit-
nomenon is caused by the border effect in- ical in the case of the MST than in case
duced by random waypoint mobility which of the k-neighbors graph. In fact, a sin-
tends to concentrate nodes in the center of gle edge removal in the MST is sufficient
the deployment region. When n is small, to disconnect the network, while several
the probability of finding at least one node edges can, in general, be removed from the
close to the border is very low, and the crit- k-neighbors graph without impairing con-
ical transmitting range is smaller than in nectivity. Overall, we can reasonably state
the stationary case. However, when n is that P1 should be reexecuted much more
large enough, some of the nodes actually frequently than P2 . Further, we observe
lie close to the border of the deployment that the reconfiguration procedure needed
region, forcing a higher value of rmp . to maintain the MST is more complicated
than that required by the k-neighbors
graph since it relies on global information.
6.3. Nonhomogeneous Topology Control
So, we can conclude that protocol P1 is not
In the case of nonhomogeneous topology suitable to be implemented in a mobile sce-
control, the more relevant effect of mobil- nario; in other words, it is not resilient to
ity is the message overhead generated to mobility.
update the nodes’ transmitting range in From the previous discussion, it is clear
response to node mobility. The amount of that a mobility resilient topology con-
this overhead depends on the frequency trol protocol should be based on a topol-
with which the reconfiguration protocol ogy which can be computed locally and
used to restore the desired network topol- which requires little maintenance in the

188 P. Santi
presence of mobility. Many of the topology 7. OPEN ISSUES

control protocols presented in the litera-
Topology control has received increasing
ture meet this requirement. However, only
attention in the wireless ad hoc network
some of them have been defined to explic-
community in recent years, as witnessed
itly deal with node mobility.
by the considerable body of research in
In Li et al. [2001], an adaptation of the
this field reported in this article. However,
CBTC protocol to the case of mobile net-
several aspects related to topology con-
works is discussed. It is shown that, if
trol have not been carefully investigated
the topology ever stabilizes and the recon-
yet. In this final section, we outline some
figuration protocol is executed, then the
of them which we hope will motivate re-
network topology remains connected. The
searchers to undertake additional studies
reconfiguration procedure is adapted to
on this field.
the case of k-connectivity in Bahramgiri
et al. [2002]. TC for Interference. As stated in the
In Rodoplu and Meng [1999], the au- introduction, topology control techniques
thors discuss how their protocol can be have the potential to mitigate two impor-
adapted to the mobile scenario and evalu- tant problems occurring in wireless ad
ate the protocol power consumption in the hoc networks: node energy consumption
presence of a mobility pattern which re- and radio interference. Although the
sembles the random direction model. acknowledged advantages of TC are
The MobileGrid [Liu and Li 2002] and twofold, current literature on this topic
LINT [Ramanathan and Rosales-Hain focused solely on reducing energy con-
2000] protocols, which are based on the sumption. Only very recently have some
k-neighbors graph, are explicitly designed authors investigated the topology control
to deal with node mobility. They are zero- problem with the goal of reducing radio
overhead protocols since the estimation interference. Burkhart et al. [2004] show
of the number of neighbors is based on that reducing energy consumption and
the overhearing of data and control traf- interference might be conflicting goals
fic. However, no explicit guarantee on and present centralized and distributed
network connectivity is given and only algorithms to build low-interference
simulation results are reported by the topologies. Moaveni-Nejad and Li [2005]
authors. consider several measures of radio inter-
A more subtle effect of mobility on cer- ference in the communication graph and
tain topology control protocols is due to propose algorithms for building optimal or
the possibly nonuniform node spatial dis- near-optimal topologies according to these
tribution generated by the mobility pat- metrics. However, the studies presented
tern. This fact should be considered in in Burkhart et al. [2004] and Moaveni-
setting fundamental protocol parameters Nejad and Li [2005] are only initial steps
such as the critical neighbor number in k- towards a thorough understanding of the
neighbors graph-based protocols [Blough interrelationship between range assign-
et al. 2002; Liu and Li 2002; Ramanathan ment and level of interference generated
and Rosales-Hain 2000]. In other words, in the network and further research on
it could be the case that the number of this topic is needed.
neighbors k needed to obtain connectiv- More Realistic Models. The point graph
ity with high probability in the presence of model used to derive most of the results
uniform node distribution is significantly presented in this article is an idealized
different from the value km needed when model of a real ad hoc network. Although
the node distribution is nonuniform, such point graphs have proven useful to de-
as in the presence of random waypoint rive qualitative results, they can hardly
mobility. Clearly, if nodes are expected to be used to obtain the accurate quantita-
move with random waypoint-like mobility, tive information needed by the network
km must be used instead of k in the proto- designer. So, the need for a more realistic
col implementation. network model is urgent.

There are several ways in which the the packet loss probability is below 1 but
point graph model can be modified in order greater than 0. This fact, which has been
to be more realistic. For instance, we could observed in Seada et al. [2004], should be
define the occurrence of links between accounted for in the design of topology con-
nodes in probabilistic rather than deter- trol mechanisms.
ministic terms. A possible model could be Although some research on the charac-
the following. Given nodes u and v at dis- terization of fundamental network prop-
tance δu,v , we have a link between u and v erties with a more realistic link model has
with probability 1 if δu,v ≤ δ, where δ is an been recently done, further investigation
arbitrary constant, and with probability in this direction is needed.
p(δu,v ) < 1 otherwise, where p(δu,v ) is an ar-
bitrary decreasing function of the distance More Realistic Node Distribution. A sim-
with values in [0, 1]. This characterization plifying assumption commonly used in
of the occurrence of a wireless link is far the analysis of ad hoc networks is that
more realistic than the 1/0 characteriza- nodes are uniformly distributed in the de-
tion used in the point graph model. For ex- ployment region. Although this assump-
ample, there could exist nodes u, v, w with tion seems reasonable in some settings,
δu,v = δu,w > δ such that link (u, v) exists it is quite unrealistic in many scenarios.
and link (u, w) does not. Thus, the radio For instance, as discussed earlier, this as-
coverage area is, in general, not regular sumption does not hold when the nodes
as is the case in real wireless networks. move according to the random waypoint
Radio link models similar to the one de- model. Further, when nodes are dispersed
scribed previously have been introduced from a moving vehicle, the assumption of
in Faragó [2002] and Booth et al. [2003]. uniform distribution is only a rough ap-
In particular, Booth et al. study network proximation of the actual node distribu-
connectivity under this more realistic link tion. Thus, the analysis of network prop-
model and argue that the characteriza- erties in the presence of nonuniform node
tion of the critical range for connectivity spatial distributions is another step for-
based on the assumption of circular cover- ward in the direction of a more realistic
age area can be seen as a worst-case anal- characterization of ad hoc networks.
ysis provided the (possibly irregular) area
covered by the radio signal remains the More Accurate Analysis of Mobile Networks.
same. More work needs to be done to investigate
Another possibility to make the net- the effect of mobility on topology control.
work model more realistic is to take into In particular, the following issues need to
account interferences between nodes. For be addressed.
example, in Dousse et al. [2003] a bidirec-
tional link between nodes u and v exists — Is mobility beneficial or detrimental?
if the signal to noise ratio at the receiver On the one hand, we have seen that
is larger than some threshold where the mobility causes an increased message
noise is the sum of the contribution of overhead to restore the desired topol-
interferences from all other nodes and of ogy. On the other hand, mobility has
a background noise. The authors analyze the positive effect of balancing the node
the impact of such a wireless link model energy consumption. In stationary net-
on network connectivity. works, if a node u has twice the trans-
Note that there is another major driver mitting range of node v, it is likely to de-
for more realistic network models, namely plete its battery much faster than node
the usage of link-layer retransmission pro- v. In the presence of mobility, nodes
tocols. In fact, it turns out that it usually change the transmitting range dynam-
pays off in term of minimal overall en- ically and a more balanced energy
ergy consumption in the presence of re- consumption is likely to occur. Since
transmissions to use connections at the one of the ultimate goals of topology
boundary of the radio coverage area where control is to extend network lifetime,

190 P. Santi
the overall effect of mobility on the nodes allow the transmitted power to be
network lifetime should be carefully dynamically adjusted.
investigated.
— Determination of the optimal frequency ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
for reconfiguration. As outlined in The author wishes to thank the anonymous review-
Section 6, there is a trade-off between ers for the many suggestions that helped improving
the message overhead caused by a the presentation quality of the article.
topology control protocol and the qual-
ity of the topology generated. In gen- REFERENCES
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Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.2.1 [Computer-Communication Networks]:

1. INTRODUCTION transceivers communicate without the as-

Fig. 1. Example of a wireless sensor network.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ing on the type of information that is

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

networks) in which nodes alternate be- analyzed the performance of a randomized

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

5.1.1. Dense Networks. The probabilistic

could be spread from a moving vehicle ,

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

one-dimensional networks in which a limn→∞ f (n) = +∞. The problem of

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

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ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

choose the shortest directed edge (ui , u j ) ∈ YGc 1

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

hardware and/or message cost. Recently, 5.2.3.3. Neighbor-Based TC Protocols. An-

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

Table II. Main Features of the Distributed Topology Control

the requirement of having an upper bound

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

presence of mobility. Many of the topology 7. OPEN ISSUES

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

Received April 2003; revised December 2004; accepted August 2005

ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2005.

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