CSMA/IC: a new class of collision-free MAC protocols for ad hoc wireless networks

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new collision-free MAC protocol-carrier sense media access with ID countdown (CSMA/IC) for ad hoc wireless networks that can achieve 100% collision-free performance by solving the "hidden terminal" problem and the concurrent sending problem. Compared to CSMA/IC of IEEE 802.11, it also improves the network's performance in decreasing the network's throughput significantly. Furthermore, it can enable different packets with different priority to access the media and thus gain QoS.