Topology Aware Hybrid Channel Access using Virtual MIMO

We propose the topology-aware hybrid channel access using virtual MIMO protocol (THAMP). In THAMP, nodes build the channel schedule in a distributed fashion based on the topology information and utilize different antenna gains of virtual MIMO links. Through the joint utilization of spatial diversity gain and spatial multiplexing gain at different nodes, THAMP increases the spatial reuse of the system and reduces the possible collisions of control packets. Simulation results show that THAMP can achieve a better performance than a contention-based MAC protocol using MIMO links.