A joint PHY-MAC design for ad hoc networks based on OFDM system

For ad hoc radio networks, the media access control (MAC) plays key role in determining the performance of the networks. However, the traditional design of MAC protocols is separated from the physical layer of the system, which inevitably limits the feasibility and efficiency of the MAC layer. In this paper, we present a joint PHY/MAC design for ad hoc networks that combines dual busy tone multiple access (DBTMA) with the physical system by making a simple modification to the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system proposed in IEEE 802.11a. The analysis indicates that the proposed scheme shows higher performance than the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol and lower complexity than other implementations of similar solutions. Furthermore, it is compatible with IEEE 802.11a networks.