Compressive sensing based opportunistic protocol for exploiting multiuser diversity in wireless networks

A key feature in the design of any MAC protocol is the throughput it can provide. In wireless networks, the channel of a user is not fixed but varies randomly. Thus, in order to maximize the throughput of the MAC protocol at any given time, only users with large channel gains should be allowed to transmit. In this paper, a compressive sensing based opportunistic protocol for exploiting multiuser diversity in wireless networks is proposed. This protocol is based on the traditional protocol of R-ALOHA which allows users to compete for channel access before reserving the channel to the best user. We use compressive sensing to find the best user, and show that the proposed protocol requires less time for reservation and so it outperforms other schemes proposed in the literature. Also, as the proposed scheme requires less reservation time, it can be seen as an enhancement for R-ALOHA schemes in fast fading environment.