Lichun Bao

A new approach to channel access scheduling for Ad Hoc networks

Three types of collision-free channel access protocols for ad hoc networks are presented. These protocols are derived from a novel approach to contention resolution that allows each node to elect deterministically one or multiple winners for channel access in a given contention context (e.g., a time slot), given the identifiers of its neighbors one and two hops away. The new protocols are shown to be fair and capable of achieving maximum utilization of the channel bandwidth. The delay and throughput characteristics of the contention resolution algorithms are analyzed, and the performance of the three types of channel access protocols is studied by simulations.

Transmission scheduling in ad hoc networks with directional antennas

Directional antennas can adaptively select radio signals of interest in specific directions, while filtering out unwanted interference from other directions. Although a couple of medium access protocols based on random access schemes have been proposed for networks with directional antennas, they suffer from high probability of collisions because of their dependence on omnidirectional mode for the transmission or reception of control packets in order to establish directional links. We propose a distributed receiver-oriented multiple access (ROMA) channel access scheduling protocol for ad hoc networks with directional antennas, each of which can form multiple beams and commence several simultaneous communication sessions. Unlike random access schemes that use on-demand handshakes or signal scanning to resolve communication targets, ROMA determines a number of links for activation in every time slot using only two-hop topology information. It is shown that significant improvements on network throughput and delay can be achieved by exploiting the multi-beam forming capability of directional antennas in both transmission and reception. The performance of ROMA is studied by simulations, and compared with a well-know static scheduling scheme that is based on global topology information.

Topology management in ad hoc networks

The efficiency of a communication network depends not only on its control protocols, but also on its topology. We propose a distributed topology management algorithm that constructs and maintains a backbone topology based on a minimal dominating set (MDS) of the network. According to this algorithm, each node determines the membership in the MDS for itself and its one-hop neighbors based on two-hop neighbor information that is disseminated among neighboring nodes. The algorithm then ensures that the members of the MDS are connected into a connected dominating set (CDS), which can be used to form the backbone infrastructure of the communication network for such purposes as routing. The correctness of the algorithm is proven, and the efficiency is compared with other topology management heuristics using simulations. Our algorithm shows better behavior and higher stability in ad hoc networks than prior algorithms.

Hybrid channel access scheduling in ad hoc networks

We present the hybrid activation multiple access (HAMA) protocol for ad hoc networks. Unlike previous channel access scheduling protocols that activate either nodes or links only, HAMA is a node-activation channel access protocol that also maximizes the chance of link activations using time- and code-division schemes. HAMA only requires identifiers for the neighbors within two hops from each node to schedule channel access. Using this neighborhood information, each node determines whether to transmit in the current time slot on a dynamically assigned spreading code. A neighbor protocol supplements HAMA with up-to-date two-hop neighborhood information by reliably propagating the one-hop neighbor updates through a novel random access technique. The throughput and delay characteristics of HAMA in randomly-generated multihop wireless networks are studied by analyses and simulations. The results of the analyses show that HAMA achieves higher channel utilization in ad hoc networks than a distributed scheduling scheme based on node activation, similar throughput as a well-known scheduling algorithm based on complete topology information, and much higher throughput than the ideal CSMA and CSMA/CA protocols.

Collision-free topology-dependent channel access scheduling

We propose a topology-dependent transmission scheduling algorithm that automatically schedules collision-free channel access at each node without repetitious contention phase(s) once all nodes know who are their two-hop neighbors. The bandwidth of the channel is completely devoted for data traffic, except for synchronization and occasional neighbor updates. Unique qualitative features of the protocol are presented and its performance is analyzed by simulation.

Receiver-oriented multiple access in ad hoc networks with directional antennas

Abstract Directional antennas can adaptively select radio signals of interest in specific directions, while filtering out unwanted interference from other directions. A couple of medium access protocols based on random access schemes have been proposed for networks with directional antennas, using the omnidirectional mode for the transmission or reception of control packets in order to establish directional links. We propose a distributed receiver-oriented multiple access (ROMA) scheduling protocol, capable of utilizing multi-beam forming directional antennas in ad hoc networks. Unlike random access schemes that use on-demand handshakes or signal scanning to resolve communication targets, ROMA computes a link activation schedule in each time slot using two-hop topology information. It is shown that significant improvements on network throughput and delay can be achieved by exploiting the multi-beam forming capability of directional antennas in both transmission and reception. The performance of ROMA is studied by simulation, and compared with a well-know static scheduling scheme that is based on global topology information.

Stable energy-aware topology management in ad hoc networks

The efficiency of a communication network depends not only on its control protocols, but also on the underlying network topology. We propose a distributed topology management algorithm that constructs and maintains a backbone topology based on a minimal dominating set (MDS) of the network. According to this algorithm, each node determines the membership in the MDS for itself and its one-hop neighbors based on two-hop neighbor information that is disseminated among neighboring nodes. The algorithm then ensures that the members of the MDS are connected into a connected dominating set (CDS), which can be used to form the backbone infrastructure of the communication network for such purposes as routing. The correctness of the algorithm is proven, and the efficiency is compared with other topology management heuristics using simulations. Our algorithm shows better behavior and higher stability in ad hoc networks than prior algorithms.

Distributed Transmission Scheduling Using Code-Division Channelization

We present the Hybrid Activation Multiple Access scheduling protocol (HAMA) for wireless ad hoc networks. Unlike previous channel access scheduling protocols that activate either nodes or links only, HAMA is a node-activation oriented channel access scheduling protocol that also maximizes the chance of link activations. According to HAMA, the only required information for scheduling channel access at each node is the identifiers of neighbors within two hops. Using this neighborhood information, multiple winners for channel access are elected in each contention context, such as a time slot in a frequency band or a spreading code. Except for time slot synchronization and neighbor updates on the two-hop neighborhood changes, HAMA dedicates the bandwidth completely to data communication. The delay and throughput characteristics of HAMA are analyzed, and its performance is compared with pure node activation based scheduling protocols by simulations.