Sparse Backbone and Optimal Distributed SINR Algorithms

Abstract

We develop randomized distributed algorithms for many of the most fundamental communication problems in wireless networks under the Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) model of communication, including (multi-message) broadcast, local broadcast, coloring, Maximal Independent Set, and aggregation. The complexity of our algorithms is optimal up to polylogarithmic preprocessing time. It shows—contrary to expectation—that the plain vanilla SINR model is just as powerful and fast (modulo the preprocessing) as various extensions studied, including power control, carrier sense, collision detection, free acknowledgements, and geolocation knowledge. Central to these results is an efficient construction of a constant-density backbone structure over the network, which is of independent interest. This is achieved using an indirect sensing technique, where message non-reception is used to deduce information about relative node-distances.