Wireless 802.11 links operate in unlicensed spectrum and so must accommodate other unlicensed transmitters which generate pulsed interference. We propose a new approach for detecting the presence of pulsed interference affecting 802.11 links, and for estimating temporal statistics of this interference. This approach builds on recent work on distinguishing collision losses from noise losses in 802.11 links. When the intervals between interference pulses are i.i.d., the approach is not confined to estimating the mean and variance of these intervals but can recover the complete probability distribution. The approach is a transmitter-side technique that provides per-link information and is compatible with standard hardware. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach using extensive experimental measurements. In addition to applications to monitoring, management and diagnostics, the fundamental information provided by our approach can potentially be used to adapt the frame durations used in a network so as to increase capacity in the presence of pulsed interference.
MAC approaches make up some of the most popular and earliest rate control algorithms. Techniques such as ARF @cite_24 , RBAR @cite_12 and RRAA @cite_8 attempt to use frame transmission successes and failures as a means to indirectly measure channel conditions. However, these techniques cannot distinguish between noise, collision, or hidden noise sources of error. In @cite_4 , rate control via loss differentiation is suggested via a modified ARF algorithm; it was shown to greatly improve performance via the inclusion of a NAK signal, but this requires a modification to the 802.11 MAC. Use of RTS CTS signals has been proposed for distinguishing collisions from channel noise losses, e.g. @cite_15 @cite_0 . However, such approaches can perform poorly in the presence of pulsed interference such as hidden terminals @cite_3 .
@cite_4 @cite_8 @cite_3 @cite_24 @cite_0 @cite_15 @cite_12
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In this paper, we consider the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol design for full-duplex cognitive radio networks (FDCRNs). Our design exploits the fact that full-duplex (FD) secondary users (SUs) can perform spectrum sensing and access simultaneously, which enable them to detect the primary users' (PUs) activity during transmission. The developed FD MAC protocol employs the standard backoff mechanism as in the 802.11 MAC protocol. However, we propose to adopt the frame fragmentation during the data transmission phase for timely detection of active PUs where each data packet is divided into multiple fragments and the active SU makes sensing detection at the end of each data fragment. Then, we develop a mathematical model to analyze the throughput performance of the proposed FD MAC protocol. Furthermore, we propose an algorithm to configure the MAC protocol so that efficient self-interference management and sensing overhead control can be achieved. Finally, numerical results are presented to evaluate the performance of our design and demonstrate the throughput enhancement compared to the existing half-duplex (HD) cognitive MAC protocol. In Costa's dirty-paper channel, Gaussian random binning is able to eliminate the effect of interference which is known at the transmitter, and thus achieve capacity. We examine a generalization of the dirty-paper problem to a multiple access channel (MAC) setup, where structured (lattice-based) binning seems to be necessary to achieve capacity. In the dirty-MAC, two additive interference signals are present, one known to each transmitter but none to the receiver. The achievable rates using Costa's Gaussian binning vanish if both interference signals are strong. In contrast, it is shown that lattice-strategies (“lattice precoding”) can achieve positive rates, independent of the interference power. Furthermore, in some cases-which depend on the noise variance and power constraints-high-dimensional lattice strategies are in fact optimal. In particular, they are optimal in the limit of high SNR-where the capacity region of the dirty MAC with strong interference approaches that of a clean MAC whose power is governed by the minimum of the users' powers rather than their sum. The rate gap at high SNR between lattice-strategies and optimum (rather than Gaussian) random binning is conjectured to be 1 2 log2(πe 6) ≈ 0.254 bit. Thus, the doubly dirty MAC is another instance of a network setting, like the Korner-Marton problem, where (linear) structured coding is potentially better than random binning. A novel media access control (MAC) protocol named carrier sense multiple access with idle detection (CSMA ID) is proposed to handle variable-length packets over an all-optical ring network. To evaluate optimal utilization of channel bandwidth, we study packet scheduling based on three transmitting queue discipline (TQD) architectures and four idle space allocation (ISA) algorithms with regard to their impact on performance. For numerical evaluation of performance, an analytical model is developed by a preclassification queue with weighted round-robin (PCQWRR) architecture and a random algorithm. Moreover, three related MAC protocols are examined and compared, namely, multitoken, carrier sense multiple access collision avoidance (CSMA CA) and carrier sense multiple access collision preemption (CSMA CP). Simulation results indicate that, of the TQDs, better performance is obtained by PCQWRR compared with first-in-first-out and preclassification queues. The first fit space (FFS) algorithm has the best performance of the ISAs. The 12 combinations of TQDs-ISAs are then considered. It is found that the combination of PCQWRR with FFS provides the greatest efficiency and has the lowest packet latency, providing better throughput than three different MAC protocols under either symmetric or asymmetric traffic load on all-optical ring networks. A number of algorithmic and protocol assumptions taken for granted in the design of existing wireless communication technologies need to be revisited in extending their scope to the new cognitive radio (CR) paradigm. The fact that channel availability can rapidly change over time and the need for coordinated quiet periods in order to quickly and robustly detect the presence of incumbents, are just some of the examples of the unique challenges in protocol and algorithm design for CR networks and, in particular, in the medium access control (MAC) layer. With this in mind, in this paper we introduce a novel cognitive MAC (C-MAC) protocol for distributed multi-channel wireless networks. C-MAC operates over multiple channels, and hence is able to effectively deal with, among other things, the dynamics of resource availability due to primary users and mitigate the effects of distributed quiet periods utilized for primary user signal detection. In C-MAC, each channel is logically divided into recurring superframes which, in turn, include a slotted beaconing period (BP) where nodes exchange information and negotiate channel usage. Each node transmits a beacon in a designated beacon slot during the BP, which helps in dealing with hidden nodes, medium reservations, and mobility. For coordination amongst nodes in different channels, a rendezvous channel (RC) is employed that is decided dynamically and in a totally distributed fashion. Among other things, the RC is used to support network-wide multicast and broadcast which are often neglected in existing multi-channel MAC protocols. We present promising performance results of C- MAC. We also describe our efforts to implement features of C- MAC in a real CR prototype with Atheros chipset, which currently includes the spectrum sensing module and preliminary features of C-MAC.