Primary channel assignment based MAC (PCAM) - a multi-channel MAC protocol for multi-hop wireless networks

Abstract

Some wireless MAC protocols such as IEEE 802.11 were not designed to capitalize on the available multiple channels in an efficient manner. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-channel medium access control protocol for wireless networks which we term us "primary channel assignment based MAC". The protocol is based on the use of primary channel assignment, which is used by other nodes to find the corresponding node. We also introduce a method to reduce the hidden terminal problem encountered in multi-channel designs by proposing a modified transmission range threshold. The scheme eliminates the need for a separate dedicated control channel or time slot that is usually prone to saturation when the traffic increases. The proposed scheme also addresses the broadcast messages problem in multi-channel design. The scheme is based on IEEE 802.11 DCF protocol. The performance of the proposed protocol is compared to two other multi-channel schemes. In an ad-hoc network, the protocol outperforms the other protocols by up to 140%.