DEMAC: an adaptive power control MAC protocol for ad-hoc networks

Transmit power control (TPC) protocols have been proposed to address the limited power supplies in ad hoc networks. However, most of the previous work minimizes the transmit power without considering both the energy wasted in collisions and the energy used to overcome the interference from all the interfering nodes existing in the network. Our previous work shows the optimal transmit power for the maximum throughput and per frame minimum consumed energy exists and occurs when the power level is sufficient to avoid the interference, and causes the least contention between nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel per-frame-based TPC protocol, DEM AC, in ad hoc networks using IEEE 802.11 at low PHY rate. To avoid interference, improve throughput, and save energy, DEMAC adaptively looks for the optimal transmit power based on the network interference and data payload. DEMAC is validated via simulations and is shown to outperform several existing TPC protocols