A multi-channel MAC protocol in underwater acoustic sensor networks

Abstract

In this paper, a multi-channel medium access control (MAC) protocol is proposed to overcome the Large Interference Range Collision (LIRC) problem in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs), which has been known to occur when a handshaking based MAC protocol is jointly used with a power control. The proposed scheme divides the frequency band into two separate channels each used for control and data packets transmission. Considering the acoustic signal attenuation characteristics, higher frequency is used for data and lower frequency is used for control. And then, the data transmission power is controlled to escape the LIRC problem and simultaneously to save as much as possible. Furthermore with the separated channels, we can also reduce control-data packet collisions.