Performing Clock Synchronization for Power Management in Multi-hop Ad Hoc Networks

One of the common underlying assumptions in IEEE 802.11 standards' ad hoc mode operations is that all stations in the same IBSS can hear each other directly. In other words, the ad hoc mode of 802.11 supports only single-hop ad hoc networks. When extended to multi-hop environments, IEEE 802.11 protocols show a poor performance, if they are able to work at all. This has been acknowledged by researchers of wireless ad hoc networks [1, 2, 3]. However, because 802.11 already has a world-wide customer base — millions of devices around the world are “802.11capable,” and that number is quickly increasing — much research has been done on IEEE 802.11-based, MANET-oriented protocols. In this paper, I try to alleviate the IEEE 802.11 MANET problem by considering two fundamental issues in wireless networks: time synchronization and power management. I ponder the relationship between them, and compare different power management schemes. Eventually, I establish that clock synchronization plays a very important role in efficient power management algorithms, and present an integrated protocol that merges synchronized sub networks to achieve power-saving in a global synchronized environment. I then show the correctness of the proposed protocol, and finally present simulation results that demonstrate the merits of the proposed protocol.