Multi-channel Multi-channel Medium Access Control Protocol Research Articles

Graph coloring-based multichannel MAC protocol in distributed underwater acoustic sensor networks

In this paper, the multichannel medium access control (MAC) problem in distributed underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) were investigated. Compared with single-channel MAC protocols in terrestrial radio networks, there exist multichannel hidden terminal problem and long-delay hidden terminal problem in multichannel MAC protocol due to long propagation delay in UASNs. In addition, energy constraint makes channel allocation a challenging problem in distributed UASNs. To solve these aforementioned problems, a new multichannel MAC protocol, called graph coloring-based multichannel MAC protocol (GCMAC) is present. The protocol GCMAC is a synchronized MAC protocol which splits the time into three phases, namely, channel negotiation phase, channel selecting phase and data transmission phase. Specially, the rule for selecting channel is carefully designed based on graph coloring theory to avoid collision and maximize the utilization rate of channels in channel selecting phase. Simulation results show that GCMAC can greatly improve the system throughput and energy efficiency by effectively solving the hidden terminal problems and channel allocation problem.

Performance analysis of adaptive MAC protocol in VANETs considering the potential impact on throughput and transmission delays

SummaryThe existing adaptive multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocols in vehicular ad hoc networks can adjust themselves according to different vehicular traffic densities. These protocols can increase throughput and guarantee a bounded transmission delay for real‐time safety applications. However, the optimized control channel interval is computed based on the maximum throughput while ignoring the strict safety packet transmission delay requirements. In this paper, we analyze the effects of the throughput and strict safety packet transmission delay with adaptive multichannel MAC protocols, such as connectivity‐aware MAC (CA MAC), adaptive multi‐priority distributed MAC (APDM), multi‐priority supported p‐persistent MAC (MP MAC), and variable control channel interval MAC (VCI) protocols. The performance and analysis results show that: (a) under a low data rate condition, CA MAC does not guarantee a strict safety packet transmission delay; (b) APDM not only satisfies the safety packet transmission requirement, but also provides the lowest safety packet transmission delay; (c) under a high data rate condition, we suggest APDM for use as an adaptive MAC protocol because it allows for high throughput for nonsafety packets and preserves low safety packet transmission delay; (d) under a low data rate condition with various data packet sizes, we suggest MP MAC for high throughput, which satisfies the safety packet transmission requirement; and (e) under low vehicle density and low data rate conditions, VCI can support high throughput. A balance between transmission delay and throughput must be considered to improve the optimal efficiency, reliability, and adaptability.

Multichannel MAC protocol with dynamic backoff contention for distributed cognitive radio networks

Multiuser access is a critical issue in distributed cognitive radio networks (DCRNs), as the collisions among the competing secondary users (SUs) may decrease the network throughput significantly. In order to reduce the collisions, we propose a dynamic backoff algorithm to find an optimal backoff contention window to maximize the network throughput and reduce the channel access delay. Based on the proposed algorithm, a multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocol with dynamic backoff contention (MMAC-DB) is designed. In this protocol, the time duration of each channel is divided into four phases: idle, sensing-sharing, contention, and data transmission. The dynamic backoff algorithm is implemented in the contention phase. Moreover, a duration tradeoff is made between the data transmission phase and the contention phase. The effectiveness of the proposed protocol is examined by extensive simulations, which shows that the proposed protocol can enhance the throughput and reduce the channel access delay.

Time Slot Utilization for Efficient Multi-Channel MAC Protocol in VANETs.

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), many schemes for a multi-channel media access control (MAC) protocol have been proposed to adapt to dynamically changing vehicle traffic conditions and deliver both safety and non-safety packets. One such scheme is to employ both time-division multiple access (TDMA) and carrier-sense multiple access (CSMA) schemes (called a hybrid TDMA/CSMA scheme) in the control channel (CCH) interval. The scheme can adjust the length of the TDMA period depending on traffic conditions. In this paper, we propose a modified packet transmitted in the TDMA period to reduce transmission overhead under a hybrid TDMA/CSMA multi-channel MAC protocol. Simulation results show that a MAC protocol with a modified packet supports an efficient packet delivery ratio of control packets in the CCH. In addition, we analyze the hybrid TDMA/CSMA multi-channel MAC protocol with the modified packet under saturated throughput conditions on the service channels (SCHs). The analysis results show that the number of neighbors has little effect on the establishment of the number of time slots in TDMA periods and on SCHs under saturated throughput conditions.

EIMAC: a multi‐channel MAC protocol towards energy efficiency and low interference for WBANs

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) can be widely used in wireless medical, motion detection etc. However, the existence of interference results in the increase in energy consumption and delay. To mitigate interference, nodes are prevented from using the same or similar spectrum resources by adopting multi-channel media access control (MAC) protocols. Here, the authors propose a multi-channel MAC protocol towards energy efficiency and low interference (EIMAC). Firstly, the states of each channel are clarified by the channel mapping mechanism. A novel channel selection strategy, considering the unfairness between high or low priorities, then is carried out. After that, considering the characteristics of node including residual energy, user priority, and data volume, the authors propose a low energy consumption enabled transmission mechanism. Lastly, the authors utilise a novel collision avoidance mechanism to reduce the collision probability of packets. Numerical results show that EIMAC significantly enhance the performance of WBANs in terms of delay, throughput, and energy consumption.

A Novel Spectrally Efficient Asynchronous Multi-Channel MAC Using a Half-Duplex Transceiver for Wireless Networks

Multi-channel medium access control (MAC) protocols maximize network performance by enabling concurrent wireless transmissions over non-interfering channels. Despite physical layer advancements, the underlying IEEE 802.11 MAC standard cannot fully exploit features and support high-performance applications. In this work, we propose the novel spectrally efficient asynchronous multi-channel MAC (SA-MMAC) protocol for wireless networks using a single half-duplex transceiver. A full-duplex mode of operation on data channels reduces the signaling overhead and boosts the spectrum efficiency. A revamped contention mechanism of IEEE 802.11 addresses the multi-channel hidden terminal problem, and a jamming signal from the receiver addresses the collisions in control signals. Furthermore, the control channel is used for data transmissions to increase the bandwidth utilization but under a restricted half-duplex mode to avoid causing a bottleneck situation. The simulator is tested for correctness. The results suggest that the protocol can work well on 3, 4, or 12 concurrent channels with high node density, providing about 12.5 times more throughput than IEEE 802.11 and 18% to 95% more throughput than its multi-channel variants under saturated traffic conditions.

Distributed Receiver-Oriented Adaptive Multichannel MAC for Underwater Sensor Networks

As multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocol has higher network performance, it becomes an important issue in underwater sensor networks (UWSNs). The design of multichannel MAC faces many challenges caused by long-delay, low bandwidth and triple hidden terminal problems. We propose a Distributed Receiver-oriented Adaptive Multichannel MAC (DRAMAC) protocol for UWSNs in this paper. DRAMAC contains two key schemes: channel negotiation process based on cooperative correction (NPCC) and receiver-oriented dynamic channel negotiation strategy (DCNS). NPCC scheme can reduce the probability of collision by using the neighbors cooperation information. DCNS scheme can help select channel according to the packet length and the receivers network load condition. Thus we can improve the performance without any additional devices. The analysis and simulation results show that DRAMAC can achieve higher network throughput, lower end-to-end delay and has better adaptability in distributed environment.

A Stepwise Multichannel MAC Protocol for Improving Bandwidth Utilization in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Multichannel media access control (MAC) protocols can increase wireless network capacities. The rendezvous problem is the most frequently encountered challenge in developing multichannel MAC protocols. Some studies have assumed that each device is equipped with one additional antenna; however, this increases the hardware cost. Other studies have divided the timeline of each channel into several beacon intervals. All stations are awake simultaneously on a predefined channel to enable rendezvous opportunities; however, this leads to low bandwidth utilization. This paper presents an efficient staggered multichannel MAC protocol (SMC-MAC) for ad hoc networks. By using a single antenna, the proposed SMC-MAC applies a staggered channel model with a home channel concept for exploiting multichannel bandwidth resources. Performance results reveal that the proposed SMC-MAC outperforms existing multichannel MAC protocols in terms of network throughput, control packet collision ratio, packet delay time, packet discarding, packet loss ratio, control overhead, and robustness.

Review and Classification of Multichannel MAC Protocols for Low-Power and Lossy Networks

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) aims at connecting every single object to the Internet with the purpose to automate every aspect of daily life. The IoT relies heavily on wireless low-power and lossy networks (LLNs) that collect information from the physical world and send the measurements to data aggregation and processing nodes. Most LLNs operate in the non-licensed industrial, scientific, and medical radio band, which is shared by a considerable number of systems. Coexisting wireless systems cause interference to each other, limiting their achievable performance. Multichannel communications enable frequency diversity, which in turn provides robustness against interference as well as increased network capacity. There is a considerable interest in multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocols for LLNs, including an evolving standard for the MAC layer of LLNs. In this paper, we review the latest advances in the topic and introduce a new classification framework for multichannel MAC protocols for LLNs. While our framework builds on previous review and classification studies, it adds aspects of a MAC protocol that reflect its interactions with the surrounding network stack. Seeing the resource constraints of the LLN devices, the study of such interactions—which is missing in prior classification efforts—can be the key for improving future designs. Relevant protocols published since 2006 are discussed and classified using the presented framework, including the recent multichannel MAC protocols for LLNs, such as the latest version of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for time slotted channel hopping.

An Energy Efficient Advertisement Based Multichannel Distributed MAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks (Adv-MMAC)

A number of multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocols have been developed earlier with the objective of maximizing energy efficiency and guaranteeing QoS requirements in wireless sensor networks. However, the trade-off between energy efficiency and QoS requirements remains an open issue. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient multichannel MAC protocol, so that nodes dynamically switch their interface between the channels to achieve this goal. The proposed protocol works in two phases, the advertisement (ADV) phase and data phase, which run concurrently. During the ADV phase, the nodes having data try to contend the advertisement channel to transmit the ADV packet. The nodes after receiving the acknowledgment from the receiver switch to the available free channel for the communication of the data packet. We analyze the performance of our proposed protocol through simulation. The simulation results reveal the proposed protocol performs better than the existing MAC protocols in terms of the energy efficiency, data delivery ratio, and end-to-end delay.

APDM: An adaptive multi-priority distributed multichannel MAC protocol for vehicular ad hoc networks in unsaturated conditions

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) employ multichannel to provide a variety of safety and non-safety applications. Safety applications require reliable and timely transmission, while non-safety applications need high network throughput. IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocol divide the bandwidth into seven channels. One control channel (CCH) is to serve safety applications and the other six service channels (SCHs) to serve non-safety applications. The IEEE 1609.4 protocol specifies an alternating scheme to allow vehicles to switch between two types of applications. However, the IEEE 1609.4 multichannel media access control (MAC) protocol has limitations on its capability of supporting either delay- or throughput-sensitive applications. In this paper, we propose an adaptive multi-priority distributed multichannel (APDM) MAC protocol for VANETs. Considering that in realistic VANETs, the queue of MAC layer is far from saturated. We assume that generated packets with different priorities arrive at the MAC layer in a Poisson manner. A Markov analytical model is conducted to optimize the packet transmission probabilities and adjust the ratio between CCH interval and SCH interval dynamically according to the real-time traffic in a distributed way. An M/M/1 queue model is then adopted to analyze the time performance. Extensive simulation results show that the APDM MAC protocol can ensure prioritized transmission of safety packets, reduce the transmission delay of packets and enhance the unsaturated and saturated throughput of SCHs.

UMMAC: A multi-channel MAC protocol for underwater acoustic networks

In this paper, we propose a multi-channel medium access control (MAC) protocol, named underwater multi-channel MAC protocol (UMMAC), for underwater acoustic networks (UANs). UMMAC is a split phase and reservation based multi-channel MAC protocol which enables hosts to utilize multiple channels via a channel allocation and power control algorithm (CAPC). In UM-MAC, channel information of neighboring nodes is gathered via exchange of control packets. With such information, UMMAC allows for as many parallel transmissions as possible while avoiding using extra time slot for channel negotiation. By running CAPC algorithm, which aims at maximizing the network's capacity, users can allocate their transmission power and channels in a distributed way. The advantages of the proposed protocol are threefold: 1) Only one transceiver is needed for each node; 2) based on CAPC, hosts are coordinated to negotiate the channels and control power in a distributed way; 3) comparing with existing RTS/CTS MAC protocols, UMMAC do not introduce new overhead for channel negotiation. Simulation results show that UMMAC outperforms Slotted floor acquisition multiple access (FAMA) and multi-channel MAC (MMAC) in terms of network goodput (50% and 17% respectively in a certain scenario). Furthermore, UMMAC can lower the end-to-end delay and achieves a lower energy consumption compared to Slotted FAMA and MMAC.

A Distributed Multi-Channel MAC Protocol for Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

This paper proposes a novel distributed multi-channel medium access control (MAC) protocol using fast and slow hopping sequences with dual radio interfaces. Specifically, one interface follows fast hopping and is primarily for transmission, and the other interface follows slow hopping and is generally for reception. The proposed protocol, which is in line with the IEEE 802.11 MAC strategies, is based on the multiple rendezvous approach and able to enhance the network performance and resolve the congestion. An analytical model is developed to evaluate the network performance in terms of the aggregate throughput. Furthermore, the maximum saturation throughput and the upper achievable throughput are computed. Simulations using network simulator-2 (ns-2) are conducted to validate the analytical model and demonstrate the significant enhancement of the proposed protocol in single- and multi-hop networks.

STB-MAC: Staggered Multichannel Traffic Balanced MAC Protocol in Wireless Networks

Multichannel medium-access-control (MAC) protocols have attracted much attention because they possess the ability to boost the capacity of wireless networks. In the literature, a staggered channel model has been proposed to handle the rendezvous problem and improve the bandwidth usage. However, it might cause a channel traffic unbalance (CTU) problem in which certain channels are busy whereas others are idle. It is a great challenge to balance the traffic of each channel because each station finds it difficult to manage the incoming slots in a distributed manner. To cope with the CTU problem, a novel MAC protocol the staggered multichannel traffic-balanced MAC (STB-MAC) protocol, is proposed, which applies the staggered channel model that migrates traffic from busy channels to idle channels. Performance evaluation reveals that the proposed STB-MAC achieves superior performance in network throughput and packet delay.

Delay-throughput analysis of multi-channel MAC protocols in ad hoc networks

Since delay and throughput are important Quality of Service parameters in many wireless applications, we study the performance of different multi-channel Media Access Control (MAC) protocols in ad hoc networks by considering these measures in this paper. For this, we derive average access delays and throughputs in closed-form for different multi-channel MAC approaches in case of Poisson arrivals. Correctness of theoretical results is verified by simulations. Performance of the protocols is analyzed with respect to various critical operation parameters such as number of available channels, packet size and arrival rate. Presented results can be used to evaluate the performance of multi-channel MAC approaches in various scenarios and to study the impact of multi-channel communications on different wireless applications. More importantly, the derived theoretical results can be exploited in network design to ensure system stability.

Multichannel medium access control for ad hoc wireless networks

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we study the multichannel exposed terminal problem in multihop wireless networks. We propose a multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocol, called multichannel MAC protocol with hopping reservation (MMAC‐HR), to resolve the multichannel exposed terminal problem. MMAC‐HR uses two radio interfaces; one interface is fixed over the control channel, and the other interface switches dynamically between data channels. The fixed interface supports broadcast information and reserves a data channel for any data transmission. The switchable interface, on other hand, is for data exchanges and follows independent slow hopping without requiring clock synchronization. In addition, the proposed protocol is a distributed one. By using the ns‐2 simulator, extensive simulations are performed to demonstrate that MMAC‐HR can enhance the network throughput and delay compared with existing multichannel MAC protocol. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Asynchronous Multichannel MAC Design With Difference-Set-Based Hopping Sequences

Most existing multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocols have at least one of the following four performance bottlenecks: 1) global synchronization among users; 2) dedicated control channel for signaling exchange; 3) dedicated control phase for signaling exchange; and 4) complete knowledge of all users' channel selection strategies. In this paper, we first design a hopping sequence by combining multiple difference sets to ensure a high rendezvous probability of users over multiple channels. Applying the hopping sequence to all users, we then propose a difference-set-based multichannel MAC (DSMMAC) protocol to overcome the performance bottlenecks. Because all users use the same sequence for frequency hopping and channel access, significant signaling overheads can be reduced. The proposed protocol achieves high system throughput and low access delay without the need for global synchronization or a dedicated control channel/phase. Our analytical and simulation results show that the proposed DSMMAC protocol can achieve up to a 100% improvement in system throughput and a 150% reduction in channel access delay compared with an existing multichannel MAC protocol.

Survey of multi-channel MAC protocols for IEEE 802.11-based wireless Mesh networks

This paper reviews multi-channel media access control (MAC) protocols based on IEEE 802.11 in wireless Mesh networks (WMNs). Several key issues in multi-channel IEEE 802.11-based WMNs are introduced and typical solutions proposed in recent years are classified and discussed in detail. The experiments are performed by network simulator version 2 (NS2) to evaluate four representative algorithms compared with traditional IEEE 802.11. Simulation results indicate that using multiple channels can substantially improve the performance of WMNs in single-hop scenario and each node equipped with multiple interfaces can substantially improve the performance of WMNs in multi-hop scenario.

An Energy Efficient Multichannel MAC Protocol for QoS Provisioning in MANETs

This paper proposes a TDMA-based multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocol for QoS provisioning in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) that enables nodes to transmit their packets in distributed channels. The IEEE 802.11 standard supports multichannel operation at the physical (PHY) layer but its MAC protocol is designed only for a single channel. The single channel MAC protocol does not work well in multichannel environment because of the multichannel hidden terminal problem. Our proposed protocol enables nodes to utilize multiple channels by switching channels dynamically, thus increasing network throughput. Although each node of this protocol is equipped with only a single transceiver but it solves the multichannel hidden terminal problem using temporal synchronization. The proposed energy efficient multichannel MAC (EM-MAC) protocol takes the advantage of both multiple channels and TDMA, and achieves aggressive power savings by allowing nodes that are not involved in communications to go into power saving “sleep mode”. We consider the problem of providing QoS guarantee to nodes as well as to maintain the most efficient use of scarce bandwidth resources. Our scheme improves network throughput and lifetime significantly, especially when the network is highly congested. The simulation results show that our proposed scheme successfully exploits multiple channels and significantly improves network performance by providing QoS guarantee in MANETs.

A Distributed Multichannel MAC Protocol for Multihop Cognitive Radio Networks

A cognitive radio (CR) network should be able to sense its environment and adapt communication to utilize the unused licensed spectrum without interfering with licensed users. In this paper, we look at CR-enabled networks with distributed control. As CR nodes need to hop from channel to channel to make the most use of the spectrum opportunities, we believe distributed multichannel medium access control (MAC) protocols to be key enablers for these networks. In addition to the spectrum scarcity, energy is rapidly becoming one of the major bottlenecks of wireless operations and has to be considered as a key design criterion. We present here an energy-efficient distributed multichannel MAC protocol for CR networks (MMAC-CR). Simulation results show that the proposed protocol significantly improves performance by borrowing the licensed spectrum and protects primary users (PUs) from interference, even in hidden terminal situations. Sensing costs are evaluated and shown to contribute only 5% to the total energy cost.