Topology Control of a Periodic Time-varying Communication Network with Stochastic Temporal Links

L. Shen, X. Yu, and M. A. Hsieh

Abstract: Mobile agents can form communication networks with links that emerge and disappear over time. Information transmission on such networks must pass through a sequence of links that are activated in a certain chronological order. Uncertainties in a link’s activation or deactivation risk violating the chronological order of the formation of links in paths for information transmission. The reasons for these uncertainties can be varied, but their presence prevents the application of existing topology control tools for mitigation. We propose an approach to leverage the pre-stored knowledge of the scheduled links’ events and create time-respecting subpaths accordingly. By estimating the impact of the stochastic timing on each subpath and by measuring how influential the subpaths are, we are able to measure the impact of uncertainties on any link event’s timing on the whole network’s information transmission performance. Reducing the uncertainty in the timing of those links with the highest impact can largely improve the network’s performance. Our method is tested and validated with simulation results.

Status: Accepted to ACC 2022.

Preprint available on arXiv: To come.

Posted in conference-paper, papers.