Performance of two way opportunistic MAC protocol in non-saturated ad hoc networks

In this paper, performance of relay based MAC protocol for two way traffic is evaluated in non-saturated condition. In real life, non-saturation is more prevalent where nodes are mostly idle. The idea of Two Way Opportunistic-Medium Access Control (TWO-MAC) protocol is inspired from the current drive to "go green". TWO-MAC uses high data rate nodes to work as relays (by using network coding) for the low data rate nodes in two way communications. TWO-MAC results in higher throughput, lower delays and reduced energy consumption. This is due to the use of relay and network coding for two way transmission which lowers overall blocking time and contention due to faster transmission. Further, it lowers unnecessary overhead and overhearing which reduces the energy consumption. The contribution in this work is the throughput, energy and delay gains of using network coding at the relay in a realistic non-saturated network.