Power controlled network protocols for Multi-Rate ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose for multi-rate ad hoc networks a cross-layer design using power control, called MRPC. MRPC consists of two parts. First, we propose a multi-rate power controlled MAC protocol, called MRPC-MAC. By carefully controlling the transmission power, it can enable concurrent transmissions, which is otherwise impossible for the IEEE 802.11 standard. Second, we propose a multi-rate power controlled routing protocol, called MRPC-Routing. Different from traditional routing protocols, MRPC-Routing is not intended to find end-to-end paths, rather, it determines the next hop right before transmitting packets at the MAC layer. In this protocol, it uses the effective transport capacity as the routing metric such that short links with high bandwidth are preferred and more concurrent transmissions can be enabled. Having these coupled power controlled MAC protocol and routing protocol, MRPC can greatly improve the spatial reuse and the network throughput. Simulation results also show MRPC-MAC, MRPC-routing, and especially MRPC, can improve the network throughput significantly.