RA-SPAN protocol for improving QoS performance in wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper an upgraded protocol referred to as Rate Adaptive Sustainable Physical Activity in Neighborhoods (RA-SPAN) protocol is proposed. In this protocol the power saving algorithm of SPAN is integrated with dynamic switching of data rates. Power consumption of nodes is reduced by cross-layer signaling between MAC and Network layers as in the SPAN protocol and dynamically electing the coordinators for routing so that other nodes can be made to sleep or be in idle state. Reduced latency and improved throughput is achieved by cross-layer signaling between MAC and PHY layers for assigning the highest possible transmission rate for a node based on the channel status measurements.