Opportunistic Routing with Adaptive CSMA/CA in Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we present and evaluate a cross-layer protocol that integrates opportunistic routing into a CSMA wireless mesh network. We develop a MAC model and protocol with enhanced spatial reuse that enables spatial efficient anycast transmissions with more realistic assumptions about the carrier sensing capabilities. Using an optimization framework, we derive a cross-layer algorithm that solves the CSMA scheduling, opportunistic routing and flow control problem. With opportunistic routing, a tradeoff arises between spatial and multi-user diversity. The more candidates the sender uses, the higher the packet success probability, however, the more spatial resources are consumed. Within our evaluation, we illustrate how the proposed system handles the tradeoff efficiently.