Exclusion and Guard Zones in DS-CDMA Ad Hoc Networks

The central issue in direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) ad hoc networks is the prevention of a near-far problem. This paper considers two types of guard zones that may be used to control the near-far problem: a fundamental exclusion zone and an additional CSMA guard zone that may be established by the carrier-sense multiple-access (CSMA) protocol. In the exclusion zone, no mobiles are physically present, modeling the minimum physical separation among mobiles that is always present in actual networks. Potentially interfering mobiles beyond a transmitting mobile's exclusion zone, but within its CSMA guard zone, are deactivated by the protocol. This paper provides an analysis of DS-CSMA networks with either or both types of guard zones. A network of finite extent with a finite number of mobiles and uniform clustering as the spatial distribution is modeled. The analysis applies a closed-form expression for the outage probability in the presence of Nakagami fading, conditioned on the network geometry. The tradeoffs between exclusion zones and CSMA guard zones are explored for DS-CDMA and unspread networks. The spreading factor and the guard-zone radius provide design flexibility in achieving specified levels of average outage probability and transmission capacity. The advantage of an exclusion zone over a CSMA guard zone is that since the network is not thinned, the number of active mobiles remains constant, and higher transmission capacities can be achieved.