A range-adaptive directional MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks with smart antennas

Using smart antennas in wireless ad hoc networks can offer tremendous potential for improving the network performance. This paper proposes a range-adaptive MAC protocol, called Ra-MAC, for wireless ad hoc networks using smart antennas. In contrast to the previous MAC protocols with only single-fold directional transmission range, we propose to use multi-fold transmission ranges, i.e., LD (Low-distance), MD (Mid-distance) and HD (High-distance), to arrange efficient communications between the senders and receivers. The transmission range is selected dynamically according to the distance between the communicating node-pair. Building on the multiple transmission ranges, we extend directional network allocation vector (DNAV) to range-based DNAV (R-DNAV) to make full use of wireless channels. Moreover, in order to deal with the basic problems (i.e., hidden terminals, deafness and capture) within smart antenna-based wireless networks, we further equip some optimizations such as half-sweeping start of dialog (SOD), extended directional virtual carrier sensing (DVCS) and so on to Ra-MAC, and then detailedly discuss how these optimizations contribute to address the problems. Simulation results indicate that Ra-MAC outperforms the existing directional MAC protocols and 802.11 DCF. Finally, we also make a brief qualitative comparison between all these protocols.