A novel multi-channel MAC protocol for cluster tree based wireless USB networks

Abstract

Universal serial bus (USB) technology has been used in various applications as a universal interface. Wireless USB (WUSB) based on USB technology provides USB’s speed and compatibility in addition to wireless technology’s convenience. In order to provide internet of things service, the technology evolution is necessary to expand to a large-scale network through a combination of multiple local WUSB networks. However, the current WUSB standard does not support the multi-hop communication. In addition, when the number of WUSB devices in the WUSB network increases, and numerous WUSB devices transmit data, a bottleneck occurs in WUSB networks, and WUSB devices may be affected by interference from the mobile WUSB devices in the adjacent network. When the number of WUSB devices sharing the same superframe increases, the available resource also becomes insufficient. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new multi-channel cluster tree algorithm to solve this resource shortage problem and prevent collision by the mobile WUSB devices.