A cross-layer contention-based MAC protocol for underwater acoustic networks

Because of the particular characteristics of the channel in underwater acoustic networks (UWANs), such as long propagation delay, low available bandwidth and severe multi-path delay, designing a media access control (MAC) protocol for UWANs is different from that for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In the paper, a cross-layer contention-based MAC protocol (CLC-MAC) is proposed. In CLC-MAC protocol, the nodes calculate and record the multi-path and propagation delay with their neighboring nodes. When a node wants to transmit DATA packets, it transmits the RTS packets, and wait for CTS packets and other packets with propagation and multi-path delay time. The simulation results show that proposed CLC-MAC protocol can achieve a higher network throughput, a lower transmission delay and a low energy consumption compared to traditional protocols for UWANs.