Network coding-aware IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol using batch transmissions and multiple reverse direction exchanges

It has been shown in the literature that Network Coding (NC) can boost the performance of wireless networks. However, to really obtain the potential gain of NC, efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols that operate with awareness of the NC functions are necessary. In this paper, we propose a novel NC-aware MAC protocol for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks that combines k-batch transmissions and multiple receiver-initiated reverse direction exchanges involving NC data to boost the overall network performance. The proposed protocol allows any node to transmit a burst of data packets in a single channel access invocation. Then, an intermediate node can transmit an NC data packet when receiving a valid data packet from a source node, without contending for channel access. Both analytical and simulation results presented in this paper show the high throughput and energy efficiency of the proposed protocol with gains ranging from 33% to 298% when compared to existing mechanisms based on the IEEE 802.11 Standard.