A BIBD based MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks with directional antennas

The use of directional antennas in wireless ad hoc networks can significantly improve global performance due to a high spatial channel reuse. Nevertheless, its introduction poses new location dependent problems related to the MAC protocol. In this paper, the Balanced Incomplete Block Design theory has been exploited to develop a new MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks using directional antennas. The protocol is highly scalable. Moreover, preliminary simulation results show that it can provide a high number of concurrent communications, depending on the number of directional antennas mounted on each node, and great fairness in bandwidth sharing.