Simple resource reservation in ad-hoc networks

Nowadays state of the art WLAN support one-hop ad-hoc functionality. However, real home automation or disaster rescue systems require much more sophisticated ad-hoc capabilities. Therefore the investigation of open questions of multi-hop ad-hoc networks becomes more and more important. The problems to solve can be categorized into two major topics: medium access control (MAC) and routing. In this paper we introduce a novel concept called distributed cell reservation scheme (DCRS) which works over the MAC protocols designed for operation in a one-hop environment and allows efficient MAC in multi-hop scenarios. We define the basic criteria for MAC protocols required by DCRS. Based on a large number of simulations we evaluate and compare the new solution using the well-known CSMA/CA and EY-NPMA as basic MAC protocols for DCRS.