Approaching Single-Hop Performance in Multihop Networks: End-to-End Known-Interference Cancelation (E2E-KIC)

To improve the efficiency of wireless data communications, new physical-layer transmission methods based on known-interference cancelation (KIC) have been developed. These methods share the common idea that interference can be canceled when its content is known. Existing work on KIC mainly focuses on single-hop or two-hop networks, with physical-layer network coding and full-duplex communications as typical examples. This paper extends the idea of KIC to general multihop networks and proposes an end-to-end KIC (E2E-KIC) transmission method, together with its medium access control (MAC) design. With E2E-KIC, multiple nodes in a flow passing through a few nodes in an arbitrary topology can simultaneously transmit and receive on the same channel. We first present a theoretical analysis on the effectiveness of E2E-KIC in an idealized case. Then, to support E2E-KIC in multihop networks with an arbitrary topology, we propose an E2E-KIC-supported MAC protocol (E2E-KIC MAC), which is based on an extension of the Request-to-Send/Clear-to-Send mechanism in the IEEE 802.11 MAC. We also analytically analyze the performance of the proposed E2E-KIC MAC in the presence of hidden terminals. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed E2E-KIC MAC can improve network throughput and reduce end-to-end delay.