Publication

Flexible CSMA-based MAC Protocol for Software Defined Radios

Authors:: Dr.-Ing. Andre Puschmann
Dr.-Ing. Mohamed Abdrabou Kalil
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Andreas Mitschele-Thiel
Typ:: Workshop
Status:: accepted
Date of publication: 03/07/2012
Abstract:: In this paper, we present a flexible CSMA-based MAC protocol for Software Defined Radios. We discuss the design of the protocol and provide structural details of its main components including a host-based sensing component. Its modular design allows to reuse the protocol on many SDR platforms with different hardware capabilities even in combination
with dedicated signal processing hardware such as a FPGA-based sensing algorithm. Through experimental studies, we examine the protocol performance in terms of uniand bidirectional data throughput as well as protocol fairness. The results prove that CSMA-based MAC protocols are implementable using off-the-shelf hardware even without placing time critical functions such as carrier sensing on the digital radio back-end.

TU Ilmenau (Homelink)