Relation between Interference and Neighbor Attachment Policies in Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks

Neighbor attachment is the process of establishing links between nodes that on the physical layer are visible to each other. In ad-hoc and sensor networks many strategies can be followed to connect to adjacent nodes. A simple scenario would be to consider all nodes within the transmission range of a node as its neighbors. More sophisticated scenarios can establish neighborhood relations with a limited number of carefully selected nodes. Different neighbor attachment policies result into different network topologies at the link-layer. In any topology a packet sent from a node to one of its neighbors will experience interference, which is caused by simultaneous communications between other nodes in the network. Obviously, high levels of interference would severely disrupt communications and reduce overall network capacity. In this paper we examine how neighbor attachment policies can change the amount of interference experienced by network nodes. We will also show that Carrier-toInterference ratio (C/I) is directly affected by neighbor attachment policies. Our study enables us to identify neighbor attachment directives that can reduce interference, or optimize C/I in large multi-hop ad-hoc and sensor networks.