MR-SFAMA: A novel MAC protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks

Underwater acoustic channel has some special properties: large propagation delay, limited bandwidth and poor quality of the physical link. The design of MAC protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks is more difficult than terrestrial wireless networks. Because of the large propagation delay, the MAC protocol of the terrestrial wireless networks is not suitable for the underwater acoustic sensor networks. This paper proposes a novel MAC protocol based on the SFAMA protocol. The protocol improves throughput by using a new multiple reception handshaking mechanism. The handshaking mechanism allows a receiving node receives multiple data packets simultaneously. Simulation results show that this protocol achieves a higher throughput and fairness than the SFAMA protocol.