Location-aware two-phase coding multi-channel MAC protocol (LA-TPCMMP) for MANETs.

Abstract

In classical code division multiple access (CDMA) based multi-channel medium access control (MAC) protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), numerous exchanges of neighborhood information are required for code assignment such that nodes within a two-hop separation will adopt different transmission codes and therefore avoid the hidden terminal problem (HTP). However, such expensive communication overhead for code assignment is not desirable since it will cause an under-utilization of bandwidth, energy inefficiency and longer delays, which can significantly degrade the network performance. In this paper, a novel location-aware multi-channel MAC protocol is presented for a large-scale dense MANETs based on a scalable two-phase coding scheme, where the first-phase code is used for differentiating adjacent cells and the second-phase code is employed for distinguishing nodes in one specific cell. A node knows its first-phase code from its location information and requests its second-phase code from its cell leaden. This protocol eliminates the HTP during data transmission without the periodical exchange of neighborhood information. Furthermore, the mechanism of collision resolution in the control channel is described. The performance of the proposed protocol is analyzed in terms of the control overhead and delay. The theoretical results are confirmed by extensive simulations and it is shown that the new protocol significantly outperforms the classical CDMA-based multi-channel MAC protocols.