A novel framework for medium access control in ultra-wideband ad hoc networks

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication is becoming an important technology for future Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). A critical challenge in UWB system design is that a receiver usually needs tens of micro-seconds or even tens of milliseconds to synchronize with transmitted signals, known as timing acquisition problem. Such a long synchronization time will cause significant overhead, since the data rate of UWB systems is expected to be very high. In this paper, we address the timing acquisition problem at the medium access control (MAC) layer, and propose a general framework for medium access control in UWB systems; in this framework, a transmitting node can aggregate multiple upper-layer packets into a larger burst frame at the MAC layer. Furthermore, we design an MAC protocol based on the framework. Compared to sending each upper-layer packet individually, which is a typical situation in exiting MAC protocols, the proposed MAC can drastically reduce the synchronization overhead. Simulation results show that the proposed MAC can significantly improve the performance of UWB networks, in terms of both throughput and end-to-end delay. Copyright ©2005 Watam Press.