ORCHESTRATING SPATIAL REUSE IN WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS USING SYNCHRONOUS COLLISION RESOLUTION (SCR)

We propose a novel medium access control protocol for ad hoc wireless networks data to send can contend simultaneously for the channel. Nodes contend for access using a synchronous signaling mechanism that achieves two objectives: it arbitrates contentions locally and it selects a subset of nodes across the network that attempt to transmit simultaneously. The subset of nodes that survive the signaling mechanism can be viewed as an orchestrated set of transmissions that are spatially reusing the channel shared by the nodes. Thus the 'quality' of the subset of nodes selected by the signaling mechanism is a key factor in determining the spatial capacity of the system. In this paper, we propose a general model for such synchronous signaling mechanisms and recommend a preferred design. We then focus via both analysis and simulation on the spatial and capacity characteristics of these access control mechanisms. Our work is unique in that it specifically focuses on the spatial capacity aspects of a MAC protocol, as would be critical for ad hoc networking, and shows SCR is a promising solution. Specifically, it does not suffer from congestion collapse as the density of contending nodes grows, it does not suffer from hidden or exposed node effects, it achieves high capacities with a spatial usage exceeding 1 (i.e. more than one packet exchange in the area covered by a transmission), and it facilitates the integration of new physical layer capacity increasing technologies.