A CSMA/CA-Based MAC Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Networks

The long propagation delay, limited bandwidth and high bit error rate pose great challenges in Media Access Control (MAC) protocol design for underwater acoustic networks. In this paper, we proposed an underwater MAC protocol based on Carrier Sensing Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), which is called UW-CSMA/CA (CSMA/CA for underwater). Three areas of improvement are investigated, namely, the control rules, the deferral rules, and the backoff slot time. The simulations in ns2 demonstrate that the throughput performance of UW-CSMA/CA is clearly higher than that of original CSMA/CA protocol. We also conclude some regulations between throughput and network parameters, which provide basis of network optimization.