A Novel Geographic Set-up and an Access Protocol for Mesh, Ad-Hoc and Cognitive Networks

This paper introduces a combined geographic and a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol for mesh, ad-hoc and cognitive networks. For mesh and ad-hoc networks, this paper examines the end-to-end (source to destination) link performance characteristics when supporting multimedia traffic. This paper also explains the cognitive network concept prior to analyzing cognitive network related results. The performance analysis was performed by a Monte Carlo simulator, the accuracy of which was verified by a Markov model analysis. An overlaid cell structure was considered for the Monte Carlo simulation where the terminals can be mobile within this environment. The system model includes Rice fading, log-normal shadowing and distance dependent pathloss. The system model also considers preferential channel access based on the capture effect. For mesh and ad-hoc networks, the proposed MAC protocol produced satisfactory performance characteristics in the presence of multimedia traffic. These results also show performance benefits of mesh networks over ad-hoc networks and how network density affects the network performance. Finally, the effect of primary users in cognitive networks is demonstrated.