A Partitioned Power and Location Aware MAC Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

This paper proposes a novel power and location aware medium access control (MAC) protocol called LAMP (Location Aware MAC Protocol). LAMP is designed for location aware mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). Specifically MANETs such as Sensor Networks or Ubiquitous Computing Environments where; node location is important to the over all objective of the network and mobility is bounded. LAMP uses the concept of cellular geographical network division in order to build a distributed time division multiple access (TDMA) based schedule for transmission, reception and sleep. It allows hosts to avoid overhearing the network and instead sleep and conserve power. Power saving is a significant concern in MANETs as most mobile hosts operate with a limited amount of power available to them. LAMP trades an increase in latency for a reduction in energy consumption, while maintaining fairness in the network. The proposed MAC protocol allows hosts to reduce energy consumption by powering their radio transceivers off while still maintaining a responsive, connected and fair network. As in cellular networks this approach uses location information to partition the network into hexagonal cells. Once a host knows which cell it is in and can synchronize its clock, it can build a TDMA based transmission and reception schedule. This is a novel advancement over empirically tuned low duty cycle power conservation, as it not only intelligently minimizes power consumption but also avoids interference. Keywords— Ad Hoc Networking, MAC Layer, Location Aware, Power Efficient