Design and performance evaluation of cross layered MAC and clustering solutions for wireless ad hoc networks

In Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), dynamic and adaptive virtual infrastructures obtained by distributed clustering protocols may be useful to support more reliable communications, efficient network management and high resource utilization. The mutual support between MAC, clustering schemes and other protocol layers would need cross-layering protocol architectures. In this paper we propose one solution for the mutual support of distributed MAC and clustering schemes in MANETs. We design and analyze a distributed and adaptive MAC protocol, named the Differentiated Distributed Coordination Function (DDCF), implementing adaptive and differentiated channel accesses reflecting the node roles assigned by the proposed and investigated Availability Clustering (AC) scheme. Extensive simulation results shown the stability and effectiveness of the mutually supported clustering and MAC protocols, under various scenarios.