A hybrid power-saving protocol by dual-channel and dual-transmission-range clustering for IEEE 802.11-based MANETs

Purpose – There are two types of medium access control (MAC) layer power-saving (PS) protocols for IEEE 802.11-based mobile ad hoc networks: synchronous and asynchronous ones. This paper seeks to propose a hybrid PS protocol to take advantages of both types of protocols. Design/methodology/approach – The protocol utilizes the concept of dual-channel and dual-transmission-range clustering. It divides all the hosts into clusters. Each cluster has a head and all the heads are organized as a virtual backbone to help route data. The protocol also utilizes the cluster head dismissal mechanism to avoid the ever-increasing of cluster heads and to adapt to topology changing. Findings – Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol is more power-efficient and more scalable than related protocols. Originality/value – The proposed protocol is applicable to MANETs composed of hosts with single IEEE 802-11 network interface card.