Channel Cognitive Multi-channel MAC Protocol in Wireless Mesh Network

The IEEE 802.11 standard allows for the use of a single-channel available at the physical layer to all users. A single-channel MAC protocol does not work well in Wireless Mesh Network, since users cannot transmit simultaneously. The developing 802.11s standard proposes multi-channel proposal. The protocol requires only one transceiver per host. Each host listens to the common channel to determine the idle channel to transmit data. Thus, how to design a high-effective channel selection algorithm is the key of multi-channel MAC protocol. In this paper, a new multi-channel MAC protocol, known as Channel Cognitive Multi-channel MAC protocol, is proposed. The protocol brings the main idea of Cognitive Wireless Technology into Wireless Mesh multi-hops Network. Every host can learn the status of channels by listening in the common channel, and choose. the best channel which has die less interference in multi-hop network to transmit. The simulation results show that CC-MMAC significantly improves performance of wireless mesh network.