MODIFIED MAC PROTOCOL FOR LOW OVERHEAD AND LONG DELAY UNDERWATER ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Efficient underwater networking is still a challenging issue due to its physical limitations, like long propagation delay. In this paper, we focus on modified medium access control (MAC) for low overhead and long delay Underwater Acoustic Communication. Here we consideringthat the handshaking process in conventional contention-based MACs is the main problem for improvement of utilization of the network channel, we propose a modified MAC protocol with Combined and Cancellation of CTS and RTS process to reduce the time overhead, and to achieve more efficient channel utilization. In Modified MAC protocol the conventional two-way handshaking is decoupled, and hence relevant nodes are able to perform other transmissions while control packets are propagating in water. Modified MAC also saves unnecessary control packets with traffic prediction, further improving the PDR and throughput. Our proposed protocol has been proven to be channel-efficient with both theoretical analysis and intensive simulations.