MR²RP: The multi-rate and multi-range routing protocol for IEEE 802.11 ad hoc wireless networks

This paper discusses the issue of routing packets over an IEEE 802.11 ad hoc wireless network with multiple data rates (1/2/5.5/11 Mb/s). With the characteristics of modulation schemes, the data rate of wireless network is inversely proportional with the transmission distance. The conventional shortest path of minimum-hops approach will be no longer suitable for the contemporary multi- rate/multi-range wireless networks (MR²WN). In this paper, we will propose an efficient delay-oriented multi-rate/multi-range routing protocol (MR² RP) for MR²WN to maximize the channel utilization as well as to minimize the network transfer delay from source to destination. By analyzing the medium access delay of the IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol, the proposed MR²RP is capable of predicting the transfer delay of a routing path and finding the best one, which has the minimum transfer delay from source to destination. The proposed MR²RP may choose a longer path but with less contention competitors and buffer queuing delay. Simulation results show that MR²RP performs the load balancing and fast routing very well, and its call blocking probability is obviously lower than that of conventional minimum-hops approach with fixed transmission rate.