Minimizing the effect of deafness and hidden terminal problem in wireless ad hoc networks using directional antennas

In this work we address the issue of deafness and hidden terminal problem in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) using directional antennas. To minimize these effects, we propose a MAC protocol for directional Antennas (MDA) which employs a novel enhanced directional network allocation vector (EDNAV) scheme and an efficient technique of diametrically opposite directions (DOD) transmission of RTS and CTS packets. We compare MDA with IEEE 802.11 and two recently proposed directional MAC (DMAC) schemes and results show that MDA outperforms these protocols in the majority of scenarios investigated. We also point out that the performance does depend on the network topology and the traffic pattern. A shorter version of this has appeared in Globecom 2005.