Scheduling in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks With Deadlines

2026-04-19

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of guaranteeing hard per-packet end-to-end deadlines and throughput in multi-hop wireless networks under interference. The authors propose a network slicing–based modeling approach that decouples inter-flow queue dynamics and demonstrates that queue stability alone is insufficient to ensure strict deadline compliance. By establishing a precise relationship between end-to-end delay and link scheduling intervals, they introduce the generalized pinwheel scheduling problem into multi-hop wireless networking for the first time. Building on this insight, they design a decentralized, polynomial-time scheduling algorithm that provably meets hard deadlines under arbitrary interference models while achieving near-optimal throughput performance.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Scheduling under Uncertainty
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization
• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Data management and stream processing for Web, mobile and wireless applications

Abstract

We analyze the problem of scheduling in wireless networks to meet end-to-end service guarantees, defined by instantaneous throughput and hard packet deadlines. Using a network slicing model to decouple the queueing dynamics between flows, we show that the network's ability to meet hard deadline guarantees under interference is largely influenced by the link scheduling policy. We characterize throughput- and deadline-optimal policies for a solitary flow operating in isolation, which provide bounds on feasibility in the general case with multiple flows. We prove that packet delays can grow arbitrarily large in the multi-flow setting under a worst-case stabilizing policy, showing that queue stability is not sufficient to guarantee tight deadlines. We derive conditions on end-to-end packet delays in terms of link inter-scheduling times, and show that it is possible to make hard guarantees under any interference model by solving a generalized version of the pinwheel scheduling problem. Finally, we introduce a decentralized polynomial-time algorithm which can meet tight end-to-end packet deadlines while achieving near-optimal throughput.

Problem

• scheduling
• multi-hop wireless networks
• deadlines
• throughput
• queueing

Innovation

• deadline-aware scheduling
• pinwheel scheduling
• network slicing
• multi-hop wireless networks
• throughput-delay tradeoff