Multi-Channel MAC Protocols Aiming at Aggressive Use of Vacant Resources with Two Transceivers

Multi-Channel MAC protocols increase network throughput because multiple data transmissions can take place simultaneously. However, existing Multi-Channel MAC protocols do not take full advantage of the multi-channel environment, because they lack a mechanism allowing wireless stations to acquire vacant channel and time resources. In this paper, we first establish the basic model of existing Multi-Channel MAC protocols to know the capability of the most important existing protocols. Next, under the condition that each station can use only two transceivers, we propose Multi-Channel MAC protocols that effectively utilize idle channels and potentially available time resources of stations by employing bursts and interrupted frame transfers. We assume a transceiver can behave as either a transmitter or a receiver but not both at the same time. Moreover, we show the effectiveness of our proposal by computer simulation. Furthermore, through the evaluation in the case that each station can use more than two transceivers, we confirm two transceivers' case is best solution in terms of both attained throughput and hardware complexity.