Maximizing End-to-End Throughput of Interference-Limited Multihop Networks

The optimum designs of multihop networks operating in an interference-limited environment are studied in this paper. The objective is to identify the optimum operation parameters that can maximize the end-to-end throughput of a multihop link in the network. The optimum designs are performed with respect to two parameters, the number of hops, and the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) threshold for successful transmission. Under a fixed total transmission power, more hops means shorter distance for each hop, but also less power per hop and longer delays. A higher SIR threshold can achieve a higher throughput by employing high-order modulations, but at the cost of a higher outage probability. We capture these tradeoff relationships by deriving the throughput, which is expressed as an explicit function of a number of system parameters. It is shown through theoretical analysis that the throughput is quasi-concave in the number of hops or the SIR threshold, and the optimum design parameters that can maximize the throughput are obtained analytically and verified through simulations.