Minimum-energy link scheduling for emptying wireless networks

We consider a wireless network consisting of source-destination pairs, in which each source is required to transmit a given bit volume to its destination. The goal is for all the sources to transmit the given bit volumes, under a time constraint, so that the total transmission energy is minimized. Our approach is the joint optimization of link scheduling and power control for minimum energy. We show that TDMA scheduling is appropriate for this goal, in the sense that TDMA is asymptotically optimal when the time constraint approaches infinity. When the time constraint is strictly bounded, we show that TDMA is also optimal for the case of equal channel gains.