Performance analysis of a burst-frame-based MAC protocol for ultra-wideband ad hoc networks

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication is becoming an important technology for future wireless personal area networks (WPANs). A critical challenge in high data rate UWB system design is that a receiver usually needs tens of micro-seconds or even tens of milliseconds to synchronize with the transmitted signals, known as the timing acquisition problem. Such a long synchronization time will cause significant overhead, since the data rate of UWB systems is expected to be very high. To address the overhead problem, we previously proposed a general framework for MAC protocols in high data rate UWB networks. In this framework, a node can aggregate multiple upper-layer packets into a larger burst frame at the MAC layer. In this paper, we analyze the unsaturated throughput performance of a burst-frame-based MAC protocol within the framework. Numerical results from the analytical method give excellent agreement with the simulation results, indicating the accuracy of our analytical method.