Joint phy-MAC layer design of the broadcast protocol in ad-hoc networks

Broadcast transmission mode in ad hoc networks is critical to supporting probing and routing procedures. In this paper, we present a novel topology-transparent protocol for broadcasting, which guarantees a minimum average throughput per neighbour. The scheme follows a physical-MAC cross-layer design based on retransmission combining. MAC layer performance is analysed. Coherent detection and separation of contending nodes is possible through training sequences which are selected at random from a reduced set. Guidelines for the design of this set are derived for a low impact on network performance and receiver complexity.