A coordination and bandwidth sharing method for multiple interfering neighbor networks

When multiple networks share a common channel, they can interfere destructively, reducing system capacity. This is a major problem in home powerline or wireless networks, especially in MDU/MTU deployments. Contention access protocols (CSMA) facilitate multi-network operation with reduced system capacity and little QoS support for AV applications (HDTV streaming). This paper proposes a distributed, multi-network coordination and bandwidth sharing method that does not require explicit inter-network messaging, thereby addressing the security and inter-network resource utilization concerns. The performance of this coordination protocol is evaluated, and compared with that of the same configuration of networks operating using CSMA. The coordination method provides significantly higher capacity when the number and size of the interfering networks are small, while CSMA performs better for larger dimensions. This improvement is obtained through collision reduction, interference mitigation and reuse of the spectrum. These results allow neighboring networks to choose between operating in contention or coordinated modes.