Abstract

 
 
 The use of directional antennas in support of ad hoc networks has been considered a promising alternative to improve spatial division multiple access and throughput. In general, directional Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols are based on IEEE 802.11 standard, which was designed for omnidirectional communication. When applied to di- rectional communication, the standard imposes a number of constraints to the directional MAC protocol. In order to harvest the benefits of directional communications, MAC pro- tocols tailored for directional antennas have to be devised. In particular, MAC protocols that are able to deal with deafness and channel reservation latency are highly desirable. This work proposes a technique that enables channel reservation and mitigates deafness using pulse/tone signals in the context of directional communications. At its heart, the proposed technique incorporates a deafness predictions scheme that helps nodes to over- come its effects. Analytical results show that the proposed technique is able to improve throughput up to 40% when compared to other prominent directional MAC protocols. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme improves fairness and throughput up to 350% and 76%, respectively.
 
 
Highlights
Nodes in a wireless network usually share a common, unlicensed, communicating channel
The IEEE 802.11 describes the operations of the data link, Medium Access Control sublayer (MAC), and physical layers of a wireless local area network
No No Tone RTR No No RTR Pulse/Tone we review some directional MAC protocols and techniques which are closely related to this work
Summary
Nodes in a wireless network usually share a common, unlicensed, communicating channel. Channel reservation based on control frames imposes severe constraints in terms of spatial reuse, once the nodes overhearing these frames are not allowed to communicate These constraints have a direct impact on network throughput and delay [2] [3]. The deafness problem may lead even to deadlock situations [15] In this context, this work proposes a deafness mitigation technique that explores the use of pulse/tone signals in replacement to the RTS/CTS frames of the IEEE 802.11. We present the IEEE 802.11 standard [1], as well as motivation, advantages and problems of the use of directional communications It presents an explanation of the deafness problem and related works in what concerns to directional MAC protocols.
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