Combining communication and queueing with delay constraints in wireless ad-hoc networks

Queueing theory and communication theory ideas are jointly applied to relate a communication link´s bandwidth and the physical layer processing to a metric called permissible arrival rate. Permissible arrival rate is defined as the traffic in packets/sec that the link can support under an average delay constraint. Simple conditions that highlight the impact of changing physical layer processing on the permissible arrival rate are developed. The results are interpreted in the context of a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) based wireless ad-hoc network. For fixed transmitted power and physical layer processing, the permissible arrival rate initially increases with link bandwidth. However, loss of signal-to-noise ratio and increased interference due to higher bandwidth eventually cause the permissible arrival rate to diminish. The results are illustrated by means of numerical examples and discrete event simulations.