Degeneracy estimation in interference models on wireless networks

We present a Monte Carlo study of interference in real-world wireless networks using the Potts model. Our approach maps the Potts energy to discrete interference levels. These levels depend on the configurations of radio frequency allocation in the network. For the first time, we estimate the degeneracy of these interference levels using the Wang–Landau algorithm. The cumulative distribution function of the resulting density of states is found to increase rapidly at a critical interference value. We compare these critical values for several different real-world interference networks and Potts models. Our results show that models with a greater number of available frequency channels and less dense interference networks result in the majority of configurations having lower interference levels. Consequently, their critical interference levels occur at lower values. Furthermore, the area under the density of states increases and shifts to lower interference values. Therefore, the probability of randomly sampling low interference configurations is higher under these conditions. This result can be used to consider dynamic and distributed spectrum allocation in future wireless networks.