SpotMAC: A Pencil-Beam MAC for Wireless Mesh Networks

Author

Chin, Kwan-Wu

Author_Institution

Wollongong Univ., Wollongong

fYear

2007

fDate

13-16 Aug. 2007

Firstpage

81

Lastpage

88

Abstract

Deafness is a key problem. It erodes the performance gains provided by directional antennas, and introduces a new hidden terminal problem. To address deafness, and hence the hidden terminal problem, we propose SpotMAC. By exploiting narrow or pencil beams, SpotMAC achieves high spatial reuse, throughput and fairness. In addition, pencil beams simplify the collision avoidance process and constrain the hidden terminal problem to a linear topology which can be solved using an inverse RTS/CTS exchange. From extensive simulation studies, we confirm nodes using SpotMAC have several orders of magnitude higher throughput than those using the IEEE 802.11 MAC with omni-directional antenna.

Keywords

access protocols; directive antennas; radio networks; telecommunication congestion control; telecommunication network topology; SpotMAC protocol; collision avoidance process; directional antennas; hidden terminal problem; inverse RTS/CTS exchange; linear topology; pencil-beam MAC; wireless mesh network; Collision avoidance; Computer networks; Deafness; Directional antennas; Interference; Switches; System recovery; Throughput; Topology; Wireless mesh networks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computer Communications and Networks, 2007. ICCCN 2007. Proceedings of 16th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

1095-2055

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1251-8

Electronic_ISBN

1095-2055

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICCCN.2007.4317801

Filename

4317801