DT-MAC: An Efficient and Scalable Medium Access Control Protocol for Wireless Networks
Peyman Teymoori, Nasser Yazdani, Ahmad Khonsari · IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications · 2013
Recent advancements in wireless protocols and technologies such as IEEE 802.11n enhances communication systems in terms of offering high physical rates that are well-suited for multimedia and bandwidth-hungry applications. Since efficiency at the medium access control (MAC) layer decreases with increasing the physical rate, few researches have used aggregation, as a compensatory method, to improve efficiency. They have, however, underscored scalability in terms of parameters such as physical rate or number of users. Thus, providing a more scalable MAC protocol has become as issue of paramount concern. In this paper, we propose the Dual-channel Token-based MAC (DT-MAC) protocol that can provide scalability and improve efficiency especially for a large number of users and high physical rates. Then, DT-MAC is analytically evaluated in saturated conditions, and a predictable and optimal bandwidth allocation scheme to sub-channels is proposed. Simulation results for various parameters show that DT-MAC can approximately improve throughput 68% and decrease transmission delay and jitter nearly 90% compared with IEEE 802.11n for a dense high-data-rate single-hop network and operates well under low load.