IEEE 802.11 over multi-hop wireless networks: problems and new perspectives

The IEEE 802.11 standard for medium access control in wireless local area networks has been adopted as the de-facto medium access control standard in multi-hop wireless networks. In this paper we contend that the unique characteristics that differentiate multi-hop wireless networks from local area wireless networks render the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol inefficient in the former class of networks. Through simulations we substantiate our arguments, and consider the key changes required to adapt the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol for multi-hop wireless networks.