Distributed Algorithms for Rate Allocation with Successive Interference Cancellation

Abstract: In wireless networking, receivers are typically assumed to be utilizing single-user decoding. Still, for more than twenty years we know that we can take advantage of interference by multi-user decoding. The Interference Cancellation (IC) technique has, of late, gained interest in the wireless networking context. Previous works [3] have shown considerable potential gains by leveraging optimal collaborative rate control to enable IC, focusing on the low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) regime. Here, we present centralized and distributed rate control algorithms, enabling IC, to increase system throughput. We consider a system where the receivers can apply multi-user decoding to perform IC and the rates are provided by a step-wise function of the Signal to Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR), in realistic conditions. We conduct a thorough simulation study comparing the proposed algorithms using two IC techniques, and deliver results that indicate significant system throughput gains.