Unit -3

MAC Protocols for Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks

Introduction
Ad hoc wireless networks are included portable nodes that trade packets by sharing a typical
communicate radio channel. Because of the constraints of this channel, the data transmission to
be shared among the nodes is constrained.
In this manner, the point in these networks is to have the option to use the transmission
capacity effectively, and ensure decency to all nodes. As we probably are aware, wireless
networks contrast gigantically from wired networks moreover, ad hoc wireless networks have
significantly progressively explicit attributes, for example, node versatility, power
requirements.
Thus, new protocols are required for controlling access to the physical medium. The special
properties of the ad hoc network make the structure of a medium access control
(MAC) protocol all the more testing.

Responsibilities of MAC Protocol :

 Network overhead should be low.

 Efficiently allocate the bandwidth.
 Distributed MAC operation.
 Power control mechanism should be present.
 Maximum utilization of channel.
 Hidden and Exposed problem should be removed.
 Nodes should be sync with time.

Design issues of MAC Protocol :

 Bandwidth Efficiency –
Bandwidth efficiency is defined at the ratio of the bandwidth used for actual data
transmission to the total available bandwidth. The MAC protocol for ad-hoc networks
should maximize it.
OR
The shortage of data transfer capacity assets in these networks requires its proficient use.
To evaluate this, we could state that
bandwidth capacity is the proportion of the bandwidth used for data transmission to the
complete accessible bandwidth capacity.

 Quality of Service Support –

Quality of service support is essential for time-critical applications. The MAC protocol
for ad-hoc networks should consider the constraint of ad-hoc networks.
OR

Quality of service support is difficult due to the mobility of the nodes. Once a node moves
out of reach, the reservation in it is lost. In these networks, QoS is extremely important
because if it is being used in military environments, the service support needed time to
time.

 Synchronization –
Synchronization can be achieved by exchange of control packets.
OR
Some instruments must be found so as to give synchronization among the nodes.
Synchronization is significant for directing the bandwidth reservation.

 Hidden Terminal Problem –

When there are two nodes, both are outside of each other’s range and try to communicate
with same node within their range at the same time, then there must be packet collision.
OR
Hidden nodes: –Hidden stations: Carrier sensing may fail to detect another station. For
example, A and D.
–Fading: The strength of radio signals diminished rapidly with the distance from the
transmitter. For example, A and C

 Exposed Terminal Problem –

Uncovered nodes might be denied channel access pointlessly, which implies under usage of
the bandwidth resources.
OR
Exposed nodes: –Exposed stations: B is sending to A. C can detect it. C might want to send to E
but conclude it cannot transmit because C hears B.
–Collision masking: The local signal might drown out the remote transmission.
Design goals of a MAC Protocol
Design goals of a MAC protocol for ad hoc wireless networks
•The operation of the protocol should be distributed.
•The protocol should provide QoS support for real-time traffic.
•The access delay, which refers to the average delay experienced by any packet to get
transmitted, must be kept low.
•The available bandwidth must be utilized efficiently.
•The protocol should ensure fair allocation of bandwidth to nodes.
•Control overhead must be kept as low as possible.
•The protocol should minimize the effects of hidden and exposed terminal problems.
•The protocol must be scalable to large networks.
•It should have power control mechanisms.
•The protocol should have mechanisms for adaptive data rate control.
•It should try to use directional antennas.
•The protocol should provide synchronization among nodes.

Classifications of MAC protocols

Ad hoc network MAC protocols can be classified into three types:
•Contention-based protocols
•Contention-based protocols with reservation mechanisms
•Contention-based protocols with scheduling mechanisms
•Other MAC protocols
Contention-based protocol
A contention-based protocol is a communications protocol for operating wireless
telecommunication equipment that allows many users to use the same radio channel without pre-
coordination. The "listen before talk" operating procedure in IEEE 802.11 is the most well
known contention-based protocol.
A protocol that allows multiple users to share the same spectrum by defining the events that must
occur when two or more transmitters attempt to simultaneously access the same channel and
establishing rules by which a transmitter provides reasonable opportunities for other transmitters
to operate. Such a protocol may consist of procedures for initiating new transmissions,
procedures for determining the state of the channel (available or unavailable), and procedures for
managing retransmissions in the event of a busy channel. Contention-based protocols shall fall
into one of two categories:
(1) An unrestricted contention-based protocol is one which can avoid co-frequency interference
with devices using all other types of contention-based protocols.
(2) A restricted contention-based protocol is one that does not qualify as unrestricted.
1. Contention-based protocols without reservation/scheduling –
 Bandwidth are not reserved.
 No guarantees.
2. Contention-based protocols with reservation mechanisms –
 Bandwidth is reserved for transmission.
 Guarantees can be given.
3. Contention-based protocols with scheduling mechanisms –
 Distributed scheduling is done between nodes.
 Guarantees can be given.
4. Other protocols –
 Combine multiple features of other protocols.
 It can also use a completely new approach.

1. Contention-based protocols without reservation/scheduling –

 Sender-initiated protocols :
The transmission of packets are initiated by the sender node.
 Single-channel sender initiated. For example, MACAW, FAMA.
 Multiple-channel sender initiated protocols. For example, BTMA, DBTMA,
ICSMA.
 Receiver-initiated protocols :
The connection is initiated by the receiver node. For example, RI-BTMA, MACA-BI,
MARCH.
2. Contention-based protocols with reservation mechanisms –
 Synchronous protocols :
All node are kept synchronized. For example, D-PRMA, CATA, HRMA, SRMA/PA,
FPRP.
 Asynchronous protocols :
Relative time information is used to achieve effecting reservations. For example,
MACA/PR, RTMAC..
Contention-based protocols with scheduling mechanisms –
All the nodes are treated equally and no node is get deprived of bandwidth. For example, Eg.
DPS, DWOP, DLPS.
Other protocols –
These MAC protocols do not strictly fall into any above category. For example, MMAC,
MCSMA, PCM, RBAR.
Contention-based protocols with reservation mechanisms

Collision avoidance time allocation protocol (CATA)

 Based on dynamic topology-dependent transmission scheduling.
 Nodes contend for and reserve time slots by means of a distributed reservation and
handshake mechanism.
 Support broadcast, unicast, and multicast transmissions.
 The operation is based on two basic principles:
 The receiver(s) of a flow must inform the potential source nodes about the
reserved slot on which it is currently receiving packets. The source node must
inform the potential destination node(s) about interferences in the slot.
 Usage of negative acknowledgements for reservation requests, and control packet
transmissions at the beginning of each slot, for distributing slot reservation
information to senders of broadcast or multicast sessions.

Hop reservation multiple access protocol (HRMA)

 a multichannel MAC protocol which is based on half-duplex, very slow frequency-
hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) radios.
 uses a reservation and handshake mechanism to enable a pair of communicating nodes to
reserve a frequency hop, thereby guaranteeing collision-free data transmission.
 can be viewed as a time slot reservation protocol where each time slot is assigned a
separate frequency channel.

Soft reservation multiple access with priority assignment (SRMA/PA)

 Developed with the main objective of supporting integrated services of real-time and
non-real-time application in ad hoc networks, at the same time maximizing the statistical
multiplexing gain.
 Nodes use a collision-avoidance handshake mechanism and a soft reservation
mechanism.

Five-Phase Reservation Protocol (FPRP)

 a single-channel time division multiple access (TDMA)-based broadcast scheduling
protocol.
 Nodes uses a contention mechanism in order to acquire time slots.
 The protocol assumes the availability of global time at all nodes.
 The reservation takes five phases: reservation, collision report, reservation confirmation,
reservation acknowledgement, and packing and elimination phase.

MACA with Piggy-Backed Reservation (MACA/PR)

 Provide real-time traffic support in multi-hop wireless networks.
 Based on the MACAW protocol with non-persistent CSMA
 The main components of MACA/PR are:
 A MAC protocol
  A reservation protocol
 A QoS routing protocol

Real-Time Medium Access Control Protocol (RTMAC)

 Provides a bandwidth reservation mechanism for supporting real-time traffic in ad hoc
wireless networks.
 RTMAC has two components:
 A MAC layer protocol is a real-time extension of the IEEE DCF.
 A medium-access protocol for best-effort traffic.
 A reservation protocol for real-time traffic
 A QoS routing protocol is responsible for end-to-end reservation and release of
bandwidth resources.

Contention based MAC protocols with Scheduling mechanisms

 Protocols in this category focus on packet scheduling at the nodes
and transmission scheduling of the nodes.
 The factors that affects scheduling decisions
 Delay targets of packets
 Traffic load at nodes
 Battery power
 Distributed priority scheduling and medium access in Ad Hoc
Networks present two mechanisms for providing quality of
service(QoS).
 Distributed priority scheduling (DPS) – piggy-backs the priority tag of a
node’s current and head-of-line packets o the control and data packets.
 Multi-hop coordination – extends the DPS scheme to carry out scheduling over multi-hop
paths.
 Distributed Wireless Ordering Protocol (DWOP)
 A media access scheme along with a scheduling mechanism.
 Based on the distributed priority scheduling scheme
 Distributed Laxity-based Priority Scheduling (DLPS)
 Scheme Scheduling decisions are made based on
 The states of neighboring nodes and feed back from destination nodes
regarding packet losses.
 Packets are recorded based on their uniform laxity budgets (ULBs) and the
packet delivery ratios of the flows.The laxity of a packet is the time remaining before
its deadline.
MAC protocols that use directional antennas
 MAC protocols that use directional antennas have several
advantages:
 Reduce signal interference
 Increase in the system throughput
 Improved channel reuse
 MAC protocol using directional antennas
 Make use of an RTS/CTS exchange mechanism
 Use directional antennas for transmitting and receiving data packets
 Directional Busy Tone-based MAC Protocol (DBTMA)
 It uses directional antennas for transmitting the RTS, CTS, data frames, and the busy
tones.
 Directional MAC Protocols for Ad Hoc Wireless Networks
 DMAC-1, a directional antenna is used for transmitting RTS packets and omni-
directional antenna for CTS packets.
 DMAC-1, both directional RTS and omni-directional RTS transmission are used.

Other MAC Protocols

 Multi-channel MAC Protocol (MMAC)
 Multiple channels for data transmission
 There is no dedicated control channel.
 Based on channel usage channels can be classified into three types: high
preference channel (HIGH), medium preference channel (MID), low
preference channel (LOW)
 Multi-channel CSMA MAC Protocol (MCSMA)
 The available bandwidth is divided into several channels
 Power Control MAC Protocol (PCM) for Ad Hoc Networks
 Allows nodes to vary their transmission power levels on a per-packet basis.
 Receiver-based Autorate Protocol (RBAR)
 Use a rate adaptation approach
 Interleaved Carrier-Sense Multiple Access Protocol (ICSMA)
 The available bandwidth is split into tow equal channels.
 The handshaking process is interleaved between the two channels.

Multicast routing
  Expected advantages from multicast routing
 Providing efficient bandwidth.
 Reducing communication cost
 Efficient delivery of data
 Supporting dynamic topology
 Technical constraints for multicast routing
 Minimizing network load
 Providing basic support for reliable transmission
 Designing optimal routes
 Providing robustness, efficiency, and adaptability
 Classification
 Globally, there are two main categories of multicast routing protocols:
 Tree-based protocols, and
 Mesh-based protocols

Examples of tree-based protocols

 Multicast Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (MAODV) routing
Protocol
 Associatively-based Multicast (ABAM) routing protocol
 Multicast Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (MAODV)
 Extends AODV to offer multicast capabilities
 Builds shared multicast trees on-demand to connect group members
 Capable of unicast, broadcast, and multicast
 Associatively-based Multicast (ABAM)
 Constructed in an attempt to reduce communication overhead and end-to-end delay.

An example of mesh-based protocols

 On-Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP)

 ODMRP is based on a mesh structure for connecting multicast members using the
concept of forwarding group nodes.
 When a data packet reaches a multicast receiver, the receiver creates a
Join-Table and broadcasts it to the neighbors.
 Each group member propagates the Join-Table until it reaches the multicast source via
the shortest path.
 This process constructs and updates the routes from the source to the
receiver, creating a mesh of nodes.