Rollout Algorithms for Topology Control and Routing of Unsplittable Flows in Wireless Optical Backbone Networks*

We consider the problem of topology control and routing of unsplittable flows in wireless optical networks with point-to-point links. Such networks could form a backbone for either a cellular network or hierarchical ad hoc network. Each backbone node has a limited number of transceivers with which to establish links to neighbors. The objective is to form links and come up with routes so as to maximize the throughput for a given estimate of the traffic profile in the network. The problem is NP-hard. We propose a new framework for integrated topology control and routing using the mathematical technique of rollout. The rollout algorithms are derived from a heuristic that is widely used in logical topology design for wireline optical networks. Through simulation experiments, we show that the performance of the rollout algorithms is clearly superior to that of the heuristic on which they are based.