Multi-Hop Cut-Through MAC Protocol Design for Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive study on wireless multi-hop networks with cut-through capability. The goal of this chapter is to improve the end-to-end throughput. In particular, we first establish an effective analytical model and find that the achievable end-to-end throughput is mainly determined by the cut-through mode, the spatial reuse factor, the protocol overhead, and the channel rate. Then, we give a comprehensive analysis of these factors in a string-topology multi-hop wireless network. In order to improve the end-to-end throughput in a practical distributed multi-hop wireless network, we design a low-overhead distributed MAC protocol and propose a transmit-delay mechanism to improve spatial reuse and link scheduling. Furthermore, we design an algorithm to adaptively select the transmission parameters, including the cut-through mode, the spatial reuse factor, and the channel rate. Finally, extensive simulations show that the proposed MAC design can effectively improve the end-to-end throughput in wireless multi-hop networks.