A New Method on Effective Protocol Design for Multi-Hop Wireless Network

Medium access control (MAC) protocols coordinate channel access between wireless stations, and they significantly affect the network throughput of wireless ad hoc networks. To function normally, Multi-hop wireless networks demand an efficient and distributed medium access control (MAC) protocol. However, characteristics of Multi-hop wireless networks such as radio link vulnerability, mobility, limited power pose great challenges on MAC design. Complex environments in ad hoc networks require a joint control of physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers resources in order to optimize performance. We propose a new method on effective protocol design for Multi-hop Wireless Network. We compare our proposed protocol to standard IEEE 802.11 MAC for this type of network using various measures to test network performance. The benefits of protocols which integrate the MAC protocol with higher layers are also considered.