A Flow Control Framework for Improving Throughput and Energy Efficiency in CSMA/CA based Wireless Multihop Networks

— In multihop wireless networks where a random access MAC scheme such as CSMA/CA is used, nodes greedily compete in a distributed manner and are unaware of the interference they cause to other surrounding nodes. In these networks, excessive interference at a receiver or a potential forwarding node causes severe blocking and reduction in throughput. In addition, the unbalanced interference experienced at a particular node can force the node to consume more time receiving packets rather than sending them, resulting in dropped packets due to buffer overflow. We discuss a novel flow control framework for regulating the transmission and improving the overall throughput of multihop wireless networks based on CSMA/CA MAC protocol. The framework prevents congestion, reduces packet loss and is attractive because per-flow information at each node is kept to a minimum. The techniques used to improve throughput include a hop-by-hop, hybrid rate and window based flow control scheme that paces the...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: WOWMOM
• Authors: Jaya Shankar Pathmasuntharam, Amitabha Das, Prasant Mohapatra
• Keywords: Flow Control, Multihop Wireless Networks, Node, WOWMOM 2006