Information dissemination in wireless ad-hoc networks under the weighted-TIM framework

We study communication from layer to layer of a network modeling it as a bipartite graph of transmitters and receivers. We seek to minimize the time needed for all receivers to get a message held by all transmitters. We study this Layer Dissemination problem under the Weighted Topological Interference Management (W-TIM) framework, which subsumes previous models of interference. We present randomized and deterministic protocols for Layer Dissemination, based on Selective-with-Interference Families, a combinatorial object related to group testing non-adaptive algorithms and superimposed codes. Our approach combines an engineering solution with theoretical guarantees. We characterize the network with a global measure of interference based on measurements in the specific deployment area. Then, our protocols distributedly produce an ad-hoc transmissions schedule for dissemination. We complement our theoretical study with simulations of a real network-deployment area to compare our protocols with previous work for models that ignore some physical constraints. The striking improvement in performance shown by our simulations with respect to using previous simplified models of interference shows the importance of using W-TIM to develop algorithms.