Medium Access Issues for QoS Support, Power Control and Multiple Frequency Channels in Distributed Multi-Hopping Wireless Networks — A Literature Survey

Multi-hopping, or relaying is an option for enhancing the performance of a wireless network. One aim of this report is to investigate the different possible configurations of such a network. We describe how relaying, routing and medium access control can be conducted. We suggest a system model to be used with distributed medium access and describe the problems with this model, mainly concurrent transmissions, exposed terminals and QoS support. Further, we describe possible enhancements that can be introduced for our system model. We identify usage of multiple frequency channels, power control and reservation mechanisms as the main mechanisms that could enhance our distributed multi-hop wireless network. The main focus of this report is a study of existing work where the problems described above have been approached with special emphasis on work that uses the three above described main mechanisms; power control, multiple frequency channels and reservation mechanism.