IPMA: an interference/power-aware MAC scheme for heterogeneous wireless networks

In this paper, we propose the interference-aware power-engineered multiple access (IPMA) protocol for medium access control (MAC) in ad hoc networks and multihop wireless LANs. IPMA is the first distributed MAC protocol that is interference aware without relying on busy tone or dual transceivers per mobile device. Enabled by its interference awareness, IPMA can naturally support efficient power-controlled variable-radius multichannel transmissions, power engineering, and directional antennas. Our simulation results demonstrate that for the same radio bandwidth, IPMA can achieve considerably higher throughput in ad hoc networks as compared to previous RTS/CTS protocols that are not interference aware.