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Mobile computing will be much used in the future, as is evident by such initiatives as Bluetooth, Iceberg and HomeRF. However, for mobile computing to be successful, an obvious layer, the MAC layer, must be efficient in channel access and reservation. Therefore, in-depth understanding is needed of the wireless MAC layer if wireless computing is to takeoff. Many random access wireless MAC protocols have been proposed and standardized. However, there has not yet been an attempt to understand why certain designs are used and what makes certain protocols better than others. In this paper, we survey several popular, contemporary, wireless, random access MAC protocols and determine the effects behind the design choices on these protocols.
Tang et al. (2003) studied this question.