Optical multiple access by receiver access control protocol for optical wireless networks

Optical wireless networks often require more than one transmitter to maintain consistent connection with a single receiver. Accordingly, an efficient control mechanism is required to address challenges associated with multiple access to the receiver. This paper proposes a receiver access control (RAC) mechanism for optical wireless mesh networks that focuses on the optimization of classical RTS/CTS technique and is applicable for indoor communications, as well. The novel algorithm was established for terminals and is optimized to enhance throughput of high speed optical links with a small number of terminals. It is based on a multi-slot channel reservation (MSCR) concept, and founded on terminal buffering in, which delays collided terminals for a limited period of time. The protocol performance is analytically characterized. Analytical simulation is shown to exhibit channel throughput.