RMAC: A reliable MAC protocol supporting multicast for wireless ad hoc networks

This paper presents a new reliable MAC protocol called "RMAC" supporting reliable multicast for wireless ad hoc networks. By utilizing the busy tones to realize the multicast reliability, RMAC has three novelties: (1) it uses a variable-length control frame to stipulate an order for the receivers to respond, thus solving the feedback collision problem; (2) it extends the usage of busy tone for preventing data frame collisions into the multicast scenario; and (3) it introduces a new usage of busy tone for acknowledging data frames positively. In addition, RMAC is generalized into a comprehensive MAC protocol that provides both reliable and unreliable services for all the three modes of communications: unicast, multicast, and broadcast, making it capable of supporting various upper-layer protocols. The evaluation shows that RMAC achieves high reliability with very limited overhead. RMAC is also compared with other reliable MAC protocols, showing that RMAC not only provides higher reliability but also involves lower cost.