Fast Information Exchange in Proximity-Based Multichannel Wireless Networks

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of distributed neighbor discovery in multi-channel wireless networks. We propose a protocol in which nodes randomly select a channel and decide whether to transmit or listen for neighbor discovery beacons. When nodes transmit, they use epidemic information dissemination to spread knowledge about all the nodes they have discovered so far. Theoretical guarantees on discovery times are complemented by extensive simulations and practical implementations. The evaluations show that multi-channel communication effectively reduces the number of collisions between nodes in the network (especially in dense networks) and that epidemic information dissemination yields both significant speed-ups and increased resilience to packet losses. Finally, we also show that our protocol compares favorably to previously proposed solutions in the literature.