Survey on joint power control and multi-rate MAC protocols

This article carried out a survey of the power control technique for energy-saving and the multi-rate feature in MANETs, with particular emphasis on typical Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols with combined techniques of power-control and multi-rate capabilities. Their characteristics, performance and deficiency were compared adequately in terms of optimization goal selection, process method and information exchange. The difficulties in designing MAC protocols taking account of both power-control and multi-rate capabilities including the status of wireless nodes is hard to be fully explored by other nodes and the control metrics cannot accurately achieve the optimization goal. Finally, future trends were predicted.