Evaluation of a BIBD Based Directional MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

The use of directional antennas in wireless ad hoc networks can significantly improve global performance due to a high spatial channel reuse. Nevertheless, its introduction poses new location dependent problems related to the MAC protocol. In this paper, the Balanced Incomplete Block Design theory has been exploited to develop a new MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks using directional antennas. It is a time slotted protocol, which is highly scalable. Moreover, it can provide a high number of concurrent communications, depending on the number of directional antennas mounted on each node, great fairness in bandwidth sharing and significant energy saving.