An energy efficient overhearing controlled medium access control protocol for multi-hop MANETs

In Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs), wireless nodes overhear all data communication in its locality and thus consume energy unnecessarily. In IEEE 802.11 Power Saving Mechanism (PSM), all transmitted packets are not only forwarded by the neighbors but also overheard even though it is not destined to itself, it switches to low power sleep state during data transmission period. Allowing no overhearing may affect the performance of path detection. This paper propose new scheme for communication, called EEOCMAC, via which a node have an option whether to forward a packet or not by sending useful information in Announcement Traffic Indication Message (ATIM) window. Hence the proposed MAC limits the amount of overhearing in the transmitter vicinity. Extensive simulation by Network Simulator(NS)2 shows that it provides high energy consumption compared to IEEE 802.11 PSM-based scheme, in terms of energy utilization and energy balance.