An Efficient Multi-Channel MAC Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

This paper proposes a novel multi-channel MAC protocol for mobile ad hoc networks that enables the nodes to transmit packets in distributed channels. In our protocol, the ATIM window is divided into two windows. The first window is called deciding channel window (DCW). The source nodes and destination nodes can negotiate to decide a channel that can be used to compete the final data channel in the DCW. The second window is called exchanging packet window (EPW). The pair source node and destination node can compete to get a channel to transfer packets in the EPW. This mechanism can distribute pair source node and destination node to compete data channel. Hence, the collisions can be avoided greatly and throughput can be increased. The simulation results show that our protocol successfully exploits to use bandwidth of multiple channels effectively.