PBRCE: Energy efficient MAC protocol for wireless Ad hoc networks

The currently most popular Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, namely IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF), is not energy efficient. In this paper we present the principles of achieving energy-efficiency in MAC protocol design for WLANs. Along these principles, we propose a novel dual-channel MAC protocol, called Power-control Binary-countdown-carrier-sense / Request-to-send (RTS) / Clear-to-send (CTS) / Ensure-to-send (ETS) (PBRCE). PBRCE aims not only at energy-efficiency, but also at higher network throughput. The enhanced network performance is achieved by easing the "exposed terminal" and "hidden terminal" problems. The energy efficiency is achieved by reducing the collision rate thus saving energy through avoiding retransmission of the same packets - and by controlling the signal transmission power and going to sleep mode to avoid the unnecessary passive listening.