— This paper investigates minimizing mutual interferences in wireless ad hoc networks by means of topology control. Prior work defines interference as a relationship between link and node. This paper attempts to capture the physical situation more realistically by defining interference as a relationship between link and link. We formulate the pair-wise interference condition between two links, and show that the interference conditions for the minimum-transmit-power strategy and the equal-transmit-power strategy are equivalent. Based on the pair-wise definition, we further investigate the “typical” interference relationship between a link and all other links in its surrounding. To characterize the extent of the interference between a link and its surrounding links, we define a new metric called the interference coefficient. We investigate the property of interference coefficient in detail by means of analysis and simulation. Based on the insight obtained, we propose a topology con...