QDND: Quorum-Based Energy Efficiency Aware Directional Neighbor Discovery in Ad Hoc Millimeter Wave Wireless Networks

In ad hoc millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless networks, nodes typically use directional antennas to cope with their high path loss problem. Directional neighbor discovery is a crucial technology in the first step of establishing the mmWave communication network. However, directional antennas introduce new challenges to the neighbor discovery: beam alignment and heterogeneous operating mode problems. Meanwhile, the continuous neighbor discovery process leads to significant energy consumption. To solve the above challenges, this paper introduces a directional neighbor discovery algorithm QDND with an adjustable duty cycle based on the Grid Quorum system. Firstly, we design a duty cycle adaptive control algorithm to avoid continuous neighbor discovery processes. Secondly, we propose a sector scanning algorithm to guarantee the beam alignment. Finally, we design an operating mode scheduling algorithm to enable two neighbors to work in different operating modes simultaneously. We conduct extensive simulations under different network scenarios to validate the performance of the QDND. The numerical analysis and simulation results show that QDND outperforms existing directional neighbor discovery algorithms in terms of ATTD and MTTD in different numbers of nodes, beamwidths, and duty cycles.