A power and mobility-aware wireless protocol for ad-hoc networks

Our main contribution is to propose a medium access protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET), specifically designed to maximize data throughput and to minimize power consumption in the face of mobility. Our protocol that we call power and mobility-aware wireless protocol (PMAW), is a substantial extension of power aware multi-access protocol with signaling for ad hoc networks (PAMAS). PAMAS itself is a modification of the well-known MACA protocol with an additional focus on power savings. We expose conditions under which PAMAS fails to properly detect and avoid data collisions, many of which are caused by the introduction of true mobility into the system. PMAW has the following desirable characteristics: (1) it is power-aware: the end users will power themselves off to the largest extent possible in order to conserve energy and to avoid detection in hostile environments; (2) it is mobility-aware: the power level in end-to-end connections is dynamically set to the minimum level that supports the desired signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Moreover changes in the SNR allow nodes to detect approaching nodes and to take preventive action to avoid data collisions; and, (3) our protocol features a high data throughput and low energy consumption in a truly mobile environment