Design, modeling and simulation of a novel directional MAC protocol for ad hoc networks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on alleviating the problems of both hidden and exposed terminal, which remain unsolved in many directional MAC protocols.Design/methodology/approachGPS is used to calibrate synchronization among the nodes, and directional antennas are used. In the protocol, different antenna mode and transmit power are used. The assertion signal and omni‐directional RTS are transmitted in omni‐directional mode, while directional CTS, directional RTS, DATA and ACK are transmitted in directional mode. With properly designed RTS‐CTS handshake, the protocol can make full use of spatial reuse of directional communication and enhance parallelism in data transmission.FindingsThe preliminary simulation results indicate that the protocol works well and achieves considerably high performance in both sparse and dense ad hoc networks.Research limitations/implicationsThe line of sight environment is the main limitation that the MAC protocol will be applied.Practical implicationsThe protocol is a very useful solution for employing directional antennas for ad hoc networks.Originality/valueThe MAC protocol can effectively alleviate the directional hidden and exposed terminal problems as well as node deafness. It can greatly improve throughput and achieve low‐medium access delay, making it suitable for ad hoc networks.