Distributed point coordination function for IEEE 802.11 wireless ad hoc networks

The Distributed Point Coordination Function (DPCF) is presented in this paper as a novel Medium Access Control Protocol (MAC) for wireless ad hoc networks. DPCF extends the operation of the Point Coordination Function (PCF) defined in the IEEE 802.11 Standard to operate over wireless networks without infrastructure. In PCF, a central point coordinator polls the users to get access to the channel and data collisions are completely avoided, thus yielding high performance. In order to extend its high performance to networks without infrastructure, the DPCF is proposed in this paper as a combination of the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) and the PCF. The general idea is to combine a dynamic, temporary, and spontaneous clustering mechanism based on DCF with the execution of PCF within each cluster. The backwards compatibility of DPCF with legacy 802.11 networks is also assessed in this paper. Comprehensive computer-based simulations demonstrate the high performance of this new protocol in both single-hop and multi-hop networks.