Misbehavior and MAC Friendliness in CSMA Networks

Abstract

Nodes using standardized, contention-based CSMA protocols are susceptible to the misbehavior of other nodes and, also have little flexibility in controlling quality of service. The misbehavior problem is addressed in this paper by proposing the use of continuous-time protocols instead of slotted-time protocols. The flexibility problem is addressed by introducing the concept of "MAC friendliness" where nodes can adjust arrival and backoff rates while maintaining a fixed share of the channel. The continuous-time system is modeled using an iterative method and matrix exponential distributions. The model itself is very useful because it is accurate over all ranges of loads and models both queueing within nodes and contention for the channel.