MAC layer protocols for real-time traffic in ad-hoc wireless networks

Providing quality of service (QoS) to high bandwidth video, voice and data applications in wireless networks is an important problem. Such applications are in the class of real-time applications; they need communication operations to complete within certain targeted deadlines. Based on this premise, this paper addresses the design of distributed MAC layer protocols that incorporate explicit support for real-time traffic in an ad-hoc wireless network. Specifically, we have developed two new MAC layer protocols, namely the elimination by sieving (ES-DCF) and the deadline bursting (DB-DCF) protocols. Both algorithms use deterministic collision resolution algorithms in order to provide timely delivery guarantees to different classes of real-time traffic. The extensive simulation studies conducted confirmed that ES-DCF and DB-DCF perform well for hard-real-time traffic and soft-real-time traffic, respectively.