A Distributed Cross-Layer Optimization Method for Multicast in Interference-Limited Multihop Wireless Networks

We consider joint optimization of data routing and resource allocation in multicast multihop wireless networks where interference between links is taken into account. The use of network coding in such scenarios leads to a nonconvex optimization problem. By applying the probability collectives (PCs) technique the original problem is turned into a new problem which is convex over probability distributions. The resulting problem is then further decomposed into a data routing subproblem at network layer and a power allocation subproblem at physical layer in order to achieve a cross-layer distributed solution for the whole range of SINR values. The proposed approach is also extended to minimum cost multicast problems and routing problems based on multicommodity flow and single Steiner tree, resulting in new distributed algorithms for such problems.