ComputingComputer SystemsInformation TechnologyComputer NetworksSecurity ProtocolsWireless CommunicationsData Link LayerMobile Ad Hoc NetworksNetwork ArchitectureNetwork ProtocolsWireless Communication ProtocolsWireless NetworksMedia Access ControlMedium Access ControlMedium Access Control ProtocolsWireless Local Area Network Media AccessWireless Networking
In recent years, a wide variety of mobile computing devices has emerged, including portables, palmtops, and personal digital assistants. Providing adequate network connectivity for these devices will require a new generation of wireless LAN technology. In this paper we study media access protocols for a single channel wireless LAN being developed at Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center. We start with the MACA media access protocol rst proposed by Karn [9] and later re ned by Biba [3] which uses an RTS-CTS-DATA packet exchange and binary exponential backo. Using packet-level simulations, we examine various performance and design issues in such protocols. Our analysis leads to a new protocol, MACAW, which usesanRTS-CTS-DS-DATA-ACK message exchange and includes a signi-cantly di erent backo algorithm. 1