DFMAC: DTN-friendly medium access control for wireless local area networks

In this paper, we consider a wireless communication network for both low-speed mobile nodes in densely populated hotspots and high-speed mobile nodes roaming in a large area. Wireless local area networks (WLANs) are deployed in the hotspots, while a delay/disruption tolerant network (DTN) provides services to roaming nodes in the large area with low node density. We investigate radio resource allocation for a DTN/WLAN integrated network, and propose a DTN-friendly medium access control (DFMAC) scheme for the hotspots. Analytical models are established to characterize the interactions between a DTN and WLANs under the proposed DFMAC. Numerical and simulation results demonstrate that our proposed MAC scheme can provide an effective and efficient way to balance the radio resource allocation between a DTN and WLANs.