Power-Fixed and Power-Aware MAC Protocols for Multihop Wireless Networks With a Large Interference Area

The IEEE 802.11 medium-access control (MAC) protocol is usually considered to be a default standard in multihop wireless networks. However, in a multihop network with a large interference range, the request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) handshake and virtual carrier sensing mechanism may not be able to eliminate interference or solve hidden- and exposed-terminal problems. This paper proposes two new MAC protocols, i.e., the power-fixed dual (PFD) and power-aware dual (PAD) busy-tone schemes, both of which are able to effectively prevent collision of data/acknowledgment (ACK) packets and are applicable in various open-space environments with different path-loss characteristics. Analytical models are developed to evaluate their performance in terms of the blocking area, saturation throughput, and capability of mitigating aggregate interference of simultaneous transmissions. Numerical examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed MAC protocols and the interaction between performance metrics and key parameters. Analysis and simulation results indicate that both PFD and PAD schemes can achieve a much higher throughput and a lower packet-collision ratio than IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF), conservative CTS reply (CCR), and dual busy-tone multiple-access (DBTMA) schemes.

[1]  Guangxi Zhu,et al.  A Highly Efficient Medium Access Protocol in Shared Wireless Medium Networks , 2007, 2007 12th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications.

[2]  Mario Gerla,et al.  Interference aware (IA) MAC: an enhancement to IEEE802.11b DCF , 2003, 2003 IEEE 58th Vehicular Technology Conference. VTC 2003-Fall (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37484).

[3]  David Starobinski,et al.  Performance of wireless networks with hidden nodes: a queuing-theoretic analysis , 2005, Comput. Commun..

[4]  Yifan Chen,et al.  IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol enhanced by busy tones , 2005, IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2005. ICC 2005. 2005.

[5]  H.-H. Chen,et al.  Spreading code protocol enabling programmable complexity/performance for CDMA local wireless networks , 1997 .

[6]  Ben Liang,et al.  Randomly Ranked Mini Slots for Fair and Efficient Medium Access Control in Ad Hoc Networks , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.

[7]  Hsiao-Hwa Chen,et al.  Hierarchy schedule-sensing protocol for CDMA wireless data-centric networks with multiple packet collision and capture effect , 2004, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[8]  Nitin H. Vaidya,et al.  Priority Scheduling in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks , 2006, Wirel. Networks.

[9]  Shugong Xu,et al.  Does the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol work well in multihop wireless ad hoc networks? , 2001, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[10]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  Wireless communications - principles and practice , 1996 .

[11]  Pramod K. Varshney,et al.  Performance Analysis of CSMA and BTMA Protocols in Multihop Networks : Part I-- Single Channel Case , 2007 .

[12]  Dimitris Vassis,et al.  Performance analysis of IEEE 802.11 ad hoc networks in the presence of hidden terminals , 2007, Comput. Networks.

[13]  Mario Gerla,et al.  Effectiveness of RTS/CTS handshake in IEEE 802.11 based ad hoc networks , 2003, Ad Hoc Networks.

[14]  Nitin H. Vaidya,et al.  Explicit and implicit pipelining for wireless medium access control , 2003, 2003 IEEE 58th Vehicular Technology Conference. VTC 2003-Fall (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37484).

[15]  Supeng Leng,et al.  Protocol design and performance analysis for mobile ad hoc networks , 2009 .

[16]  Leonard Kleinrock,et al.  Optimal Transmission Ranges for Randomly Distributed Packet Radio Terminals , 1984, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[17]  Bernhard Walke,et al.  A Novel MAC Protocol for Throughput Sensitive Applications in Vehicular Environments , 2007, 2007 IEEE 65th Vehicular Technology Conference - VTC2007-Spring.

[18]  Jing Deng,et al.  Dual busy tone multiple access (DBTMA)-a multiple access control scheme for ad hoc networks , 2002, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[19]  H. H. Chen,et al.  Novel group-based spreading code protocol: hierarchy schedule sensing protocol for CDMA wireless networks , 1999 .