A Hybrid Token-CDMA MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Token-passing medium access control (MAC) protocols are gaining interest among wireless ad hoc network researchers as they provide unrivaled advantages over the existing IEEE 802.11 standards. This paper introduces a hybrid token-code division multiple access (CDMA) MAC protocol that is based on a token-passing scheme with the incorporation of CDMA. With its unique CDMA feature, the proposed MAC is able to support multiple simultaneous transmissions. The proposed protocol provides both quality of service (QoS) and high network resource utilization while ensuring the stability of the network. This paper examines the performance of the proposed MAC scheme by simulation and compares its performance against that of other MAC protocols that have appeared in the literature. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed MAC scheme is effective in decreasing the packet delay and significantly shortens the length of the queue. The input traffic model used in the simulation is a two-state Markov-Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP). The data rate QoS is enforced by implementing a modified leaky bucket mechanism in the proposed MAC scheme. The simulation also takes into account channel link errors caused by the wireless link by implementing a multilayered Gilbert-Elliot model.