Minimum-length scheduling and rate control for time-varying wireless networks

We study the problem of minimum-length scheduling in time-varying, single-hop wireless networks where each source of traffic has a finite amount of data to deliver to its corresponding destination. Our objective is to obtain a joint scheduling and rate control policy that minimizes the overall time required to deliver all the data to its intended destinations. We incorporate the physical layer into the scheduling decisions through the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) criterion. We show that the minimum-length scheduling problem can be formulated as a stochastic shortest path. We provide an optimal policy by employing principles of dynamic programming. Finally, we discuss the applicability of our results for solving the minimum-length scheduling problem in general multi-hop wireless networks.