Analytical Modeling of Medium Access Control Protocols in Wireless Networks

摘要

A new modeling framework is introduced for the analytical study of medium access control (MAC) protocols operating in multihop wireless ad hoc networks, i.e., wireless networks characterized by the lack of any pre-existent infrastructure and where participating devices must cooperatively provide the basic functionalities that are common to any computer network. The proposed modeling framework focuses on the interactions between the physical (PHY) and MAC layers, and on the impact that each node has on the dynamics of every other node in the network. To account for the effects of both cross-layer interactions and the interference among all nodes, a novel linear model is introduced with which topology and PHY/MAC-layer aspects are naturally incorporated in what we define as interference matrices. A key feature of the model is that nodes can be modeled individually, i.e., it allows a per-node setup of many layer-specific parameters. Moreover, no spatial probability distribution or special arrangement of nodes is assumed; the model allows the computation of individual (per-node) performance metrics for any given network topology and radio channel model.