On the medium access control problem in Ad hoc networks with smart antennas

Abstract

In this paper, we address the problem of medium access control in ad-hoc networks with fully adaptive array antennas, which to the best of our knowledge is one of the first efforts of its kind. We show that, unlike in the case of directional and switched beam antennas, significant performance improvement can be leveraged with just a simple extension to CSMA/CA that we refer to as CSMA/CA (k). We than provide PHY layer based insights into why a MAC scheme that is smarter than CSMA/CA (k), and can achieve significantly better performance is possible in the target environment. Finally, we propose an idealized protocol called SMART-MAC that builds on the insights.