Buffer overflow notification protocol at link level for wireless ad hoc networks

A buffer overflow notification protocol, to effectively control buffer overflow at the link level in wireless ad hoc networks, is proposed. The protocol allows a congested node to have a higher transmission priority so as to access a shared medium by the dynamic adjustment of the contention window of the node and its neighbouring nodes. The protocol is evaluated using a GloMoSim simulator. Simulation results show that the protocol achieves 10 20% improvement of throughput, and immediately and efficiently reduces the packet drops due to buffer overflow at intermediate nodes on the transmission path.