Comparative analyses on medium access control protocol in wireless ATM

Wireless ATM is a technology for creating wireless broadband networks that can transmit voice, data and video via air. It is designed to provide high-speed, noiseless, reliable and asynchronous communications. The medium access control (MAC) layer is very important in wireless communications for controlling multiple accesses to the medium simultaneously and optimally. Many MAC protocols have been proposed for wireless ATM in the past several years. Seven of them are studied in this paper in order to have detailed comparative analyses. They are DQRUMA, PRMA/DA, DSA++, DTDMA/PR, MASCARA, PRMA/ATDD and DTDMA/TDD. We compare them on the architecture aspect. It is our judgment that the best MAC protocol on architecture is DTDMA/TDD. It is concluded that DTDMA/TDD is the best MAC protocol considered in the study.