SAM-MAC: An efficient channel assignment scheme for multi-channel ad hoc networks

Using multi-channel MAC protocols in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is a promising way to improve the throughput performance. Channel assignment, which directly determines the efficiency of the frequency utilization, is the critical part of multi-channel schemes. Current 802.11-like schemes of multi-channel MAC do not efficiently use the multiple channels due to the overhead caused by channel assignment. Moreover, the control channel saturation problem limits the number of channels of these previous schemes. In this paper, we propose a new scheme called SAM-MAC (Self-Adjustable Multi-channel MAC), which features with one common channel and two half-duplex transceivers for each node. A method called self-adjustment is used to reassign the channels and balance the traffic on different channels. Due to less contention in common channel and smaller channel assignment overhead, this scheme increases the throughput compared with previous approaches. Control channels are free from saturation problem and can furthermore be used for data transmission.