Utility-based resource allocations in multi-hop wireless networks

It is well known that CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) protocols exhibit very poor performance in case of multi-hop transmissions, because of inter-link interference due to imperfect carrier sensing. Since ad-hoc networks based on multi-hop packet deliveries are becoming more and more common in different application and networking scenarios, different medium access control extensions are currently considered for improving the channel utilization efficiency. In this paper, we propose a simple approach based on preallocating temporal slots in which different sets of nodes are allowed to contend for the channel access, which can significantly improve CSMA performance with limited signaling overhead. Since the approach does not completely prevent contentions for accessing the wireless channel, we also propose a game-theoretical analysis of contention strategies for multi-hop networks.