Maxmin fair scheduling in wireless ad hoc networks

Abstract

We investigate from an algorithmic perspective the maxmin fair allocation of bandwidth in wireless ad hoc networks. We formalize the maxmin fair objective under wireless scheduling constraints, and present a necessary and sufficient condition for maxmin fairness of a bandwidth allocation. We propose an algorithm that assigns weights to the sessions dynamically such that the weights depend on the congestion in the neighborhood, and schedules the sessions that constitute a maximum weighted matching. We prove that this algorithm attains the maxmin fair rates, even though it does not use any information about the statistics of the packet arrival process.