Analyzing Split Channel Medium Access Control Schemes

Abstract

In this work, we analyze and evaluate the maximum achievable throughput of split-channel MAC schemes that are based on the RTS/CTS (Ready-To-Send/Clear-To-Send) dialogue and that rely on pure ALOHA or on p-persistent Carrier Sensing Multiple Access (CSMA) contention resolution techniques. Our results show that, when radio propagation delays are negligible and when the pure ALOHA mechanism is used, then for a network with relatively large number of nodes, the maximum achievable throughput of the split-channel MAC schemes is lower than that of the corresponding single-channel MAC schemes. When the split-channel MAC schemes employ the p-persistent CSMA mechanism, then they out-perform the corresponding single-channel schemes when the maximum end-to-end propagation delays are at least 25% of the transmission time of the control packets on the single shared channel