Performance analysis of IEEE 802.11 based MAC for underwater acoustic networks

Abstract

This paper deals with the performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 MAC in the DCF mode, which is a basic international protocol of wireless LAN, for underwater acoustic networks. Due to harsh underwater environments, underwater acoustic networks have shown poor characteristics such as resulting in long propagation delays, low data rates, and short communication coverage. In this paper, we present a modified MAC protocol based on IEEE 802.11 in the DCF mode that removes DIFS and SIFS which are useful to prevent packet collision in traditional wireless networks. We aim at the performance analysis of the modified MAC protocol, along with the existing 802.11 MAC to show the performance differences when dealing with underwater acoustic networks. Copyright ？ 2008 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).