Comparative study between exponential back off and dynamic waiting strategies for medium access in wireless ad hoc networks

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 DCF (IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function) is widely used MAC protocol for wireless channel access. Although it is developed for single hop networks where all nodes are in the same radio range, it can be directly used for wireless multiphop hoc networks. But performance of IEEE 802.11 DCF in wireless ad hoc networks su <p/>ers as it has been developed considering single hop networks only. Many amendments has been proposed to enhance its performance in multihop ad hoc networks. One such scheme is DWMAC (Dynamic Waiting Medium Access Control). In this work, performance of IEEE 802.11 DCF and DWMAC are compared for different network scenarios and traffic patterns. It has been observed that the performance of DWMAC can be further improved if we alter the restricted mode operation of the nodes. We have proposed a new modified protocol DWMAC-Modied and have shown by simulations that DWMAC-Modied offers singnificant improvements.