Multi-channel mac for ad hoc networks

TLDR

The IEEE 802.11 standard supports multiple physical channels, yet its MAC is single‑channel, which causes hidden‑terminal problems in multi‑channel environments. This work proposes a dynamic multi‑channel MAC protocol for ad hoc wireless networks to enhance performance. The protocol employs a single transceiver per host, dynamically switches channels, and uses temporal synchronization to eliminate the multi‑channel hidden‑terminal problem. Simulations demonstrate that the protocol significantly increases throughput—especially under congestion—outperforms IEEE 802.11, matches a multi‑transceiver protocol, and does so with only one transceiver per host.

Abstract

This paper proposes a medium access control (MAC) protocol for ad hoc wireless networks that utilizes multiple channels dynamically to improve performance. The IEEE 802.11 standard allows for the use of multiple channels available at the physical layer, but its MAC protocol is designed only for a single channel. A single-channel MAC protocol does not work well in a multi-channel environment, because of the multi-channel hidden terminal problem . Our proposed protocol enables hosts to utilize multiple channels by switching hannels dynamically, thus increasing network throughput. The protocol requires only one transceiver per host, but solves the multi-channel hidden terminal problem using temporal synchronization. Our scheme improves network throughput signifiantly, especially when the network is highly congested. The simulation results show that our protocol successfully exploits multiple hannels to achieve higher throughput than IEEE 802.11. Also, the performance of our protocol is comparable to another multi-hannel MAC protocol that requires multiple transceivers per host. Since our protocol requires only one transceiver per host, it an be implemented with a hardware complexity comparable to IEEE 802.11.