Optimizing Local Capacity of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

TL;DR

This paper evaluates various medium access protocols in wireless ad hoc networks to identify the most optimal protocol for maximizing local capacity, revealing that grid-based protocols are near optimal and outperform simple ALOHA.

Contribution

The study provides a comparative analysis of different protocols and conjectures the optimality of grid-based arrangements for maximizing local capacity.

Findings

Grid pattern protocols are conjectured to be optimal for local capacity.

Optimal local capacity is at most double that of ALOHA.

Node coloring and carrier sense protocols nearly achieve optimal capacity.

Abstract

In this work, we evaluate local capacity of wireless ad hoc networks with several medium access protocols and identify the most optimal protocol. We define local capacity as the average information rate received by a receiver randomly located in the network. We analyzed grid pattern protocols where simultaneous transmitters are positioned in a regular grid pattern, pure ALOHA protocols where simultaneous transmitters are dispatched according to a uniform Poisson distribution and exclusion protocols where simultaneous transmitters are dispatched according to an exclusion rule such as node coloring and carrier sense protocols. Our analysis allows us to conjecture that local capacity is optimal when simultaneous transmitters are positioned in a grid pattern based on equilateral triangles and our results show that this optimal local capacity is at most double the local capacity of simple ALOHA protocol. Our results also show that node coloring and carrier sense protocols approach the optimal local capacity by an almost negligible difference.