Impact of lossy links on performance of multihop wireless networks

Multihop wireless networks have unique features such as lossy links and interference. Both interference and lossy links affect the maximum achievable throughput of a network. Some wireless networks have energy constraints. Lossy links also affect energy efficiency due to retransmissions and broadcasting. We investigate the impact of lossy links on maximum achievable throughput and minimax energy utilization. These can be modeled as linear programming optimization problems. We give optimal solutions for both flow-based and destination-based routing. Experiments show that lossy links do have significant impact on the maximum achievable throughput. There are cases where a network can only achieve half of the throughput of the corresponding lossless network. The results show less significant impact of loss on energy efficiency. In some cases, the loss may be advantageous for energy efficiency, since the energy consumption may be reduced due to the loss of broadcasting messages. Experiments also show the significant impact of overhearing on energy efficiency.