Channel allocation for throughput enhancement of IEEE 802.11 MAC based multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks

Multi-channel MAC protocols gains very much importance because of the necessity to enhance the network capacity of wireless networks. Existing MAC protocols rarely exploit the non-interfering multiple channels of 802.11 standard. This paper evaluates a channel allocation method which improves the overall throughput of 802.11 MAC. This method reduces collision considerably, by allowing each node to select appropriate channel from its 3-hop neighborhood. This method is simulated using NS 2 and results show enhancement in throughput.