MMAC-HR: Multi-Channel Medium Access Control with Hopping Reservation for Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

In this paper, we study the multi-channel exposed terminal problem in multi-hop wireless networks. We first explain how the multi-channel exposed terminal problem occurs. We then propose a multi-channel MAC protocol, called multi-channel MAC with hopping reservation (MMAC-HR), to resolve the multi-channel exposed terminal problem. The proposed MMAC-HR protocol has the following features: 1) it does not require clock synchronization; 2) it uses channel hopping without exchanging information; 3) it is distributed; and 4) it is based on CSMA/CA for all channels. Simulation results by using the ns-2 simulator are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed multi-channel MAC protocol.