A Novel MAC Protocol for QoS in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Abstract

We propose a medium access control (MAC) protocol for real-time applications in one-hop ad-hoc wireless networks. It is a distributed mechanism that takes account of priority and has a bounded packet delay. Nodes use energy signals to contend for the right to access the channel. Nodes, which have a packet to transmit, send energy signals or listen to the channel based on their binary frame. The node that has sent energy signals and has not heard any energy signals wins the right to access the channel. We use two schemes to determine the binary frame: at the beginning of a session, a node determines it based on its priority level and a random number; after successful transmission, based on a count of successful packet transmissions. With the first scheme, in order to reduce contention losses, the nodes that had won the right to access the channel but failed in transmission have priority over the other nodes. With the second scheme, the node that has the largest count, the one that has been waiting the longest, can send a packet without risking collision. The protocol provides higher probability of successful transmission and a limit on maximum packet delay. An analysis of the protocol provides conditions for the protocol to be stable. We evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol using simulations of a network with a mixed population of data and real-time nodes, whose source is constant bit rate (CBR) and a two state Markov on/off process.