Fairness enhancement in a self-configuring cluster-based wireless ad hoc network

Abstract

In this paper we analyze an unfairness problem arisen when implementing the self-configuring clusterbased DQCA AD HOC MAC protocol in a near-static topology. When there is a low relative mobility among terminals and the aggregate traffic offered to the network is proximate to the maximum transmission capacity, the DQCA AD HOC cluster set is unaltered for long periods of time. In this case, the histogram of delivered data by each node is not uniform, i.e. some nodes can deliver a high percentage of their data while some others can never get access to the network. This breaks the desirable fairness of a MAC protocol. We propose and analyze a straightforward solution that not only minimizes this unfairness issue sharing in a more homogenous manner the scarce radio resources, but also acts as an implicit powersaving mechanism. Moreover, the proposed mechanism increases the aggregate throughput in the network.