MDA: an efficient directional MAC scheme for wireless ad hoc networks

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of deafness and hidden terminal problem in a mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) using directional antennas. To minimize these effects, we propose a MAC protocol for directional Antennas (MDA) which employs an enhanced directional network allocation vector (NAV) scheme and, a novel technique of diametrically opposite directions (DOD) transmission of RTS and CTS. We compare MDA with IEEE 802.11 and two recently proposed directional MAC protocols and results show that MDA outperforms these protocols in the majority of scenarios investigated. We also point out that the performance does depend on the network topology and the traffic pattern