Performance characteristics of a reservation MAC protocol with multiple data channels

The Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) with Collision Avoidance (CA) protocol, a reservation media access control (MAC) protocol, appears to be one of the current favorites for wireless ad hoc networks operating in dynamic environments, because of its simplicity and versatility. Using the CSMA/CA protocol, radios compete to reserve the right-to-transmit with relative short control packets, rather than directly competing for data transmissions with relatively long data packets. Once a reservation is made, a single data channel is normally used for the data transmission. The performance characteristics of the reservation MAC protocol with a single data channel is well known. However, its performance for multiple data channels has not been clearly characterized for practical applications. This paper derives the performance achievable by the MAC protocol with multiple data channels, and their relative performance measures are compared. The results can easily be applied by users to assess the system performance achievable against their operational needs.