Ad Hoc Wireless Networks Utilizing Multi-Rate and Power-Save Capabilities

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Wireless communication technology has gained widespread acceptance in recent years. Wireless local area networks have come into greater use, with the advent of the IEEE 802.11 standard and availability of several commercial products based on this standard. An ad hoc network can be formed by wireless, potentially mobile hosts, without requiring the use of any fixed infrastructure, such as base stations. Such networks have many applications, including home networking, personal area networking, sensor networking, search-and-rescue missions in remote areas, and other civilian as well as military operations. Modern wireless devices are often designed with the capability to transmit at different bit rates using different modulation schemes and to operate in a power-save mode to conserve energy. While such wireless devices can be built, there is not adequate research on performance of ad hoc networks utilizing such devices. This project will, therefore, attempt to answer two broad questions: (1)How to design wireless medium access control (MAC) protocols that exploit multi-rate and power-save capabilities in ad hoc networks? While there has been some work on such protocols, this project is expected to develop new techniques to utilize multi-rate and power-save capabilities. (2) What is the impact of multi-rate and power-save capabilities on performance on network layer and transport layer? The project will study the interaction between wireless device capabilities and upper layer performance, and develop mechanisms to improve performance of the various layers.