WLAN Technologies for Mobile ad hoc Networks

The paper focuses on two emerging technologies for constructing a Mobile ad hoc network: IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. The IEEE 802.11 standard is a good platform to implement a single-hop ad hoc network because of its extreme simplicity. Furthermore, multi-hop networks covering areas of several square kilometers could be built by exploiting the IEEE 802.11 technology. On smaller scales, technologies like Bluetooth can be exploited (perhaps in combination with the 802.11-type technology) to build ad-hoc wireless Personal Area Networks, i.e. networks that connect devices placed inside a circle with radius of 10 meters. The paper presents with a tutorial style the architectures and protocols of IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. In addition, a discussion on the performance of these two technologies is presented. Specifically, we focus on the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol adopted by the two technologies and we analyze both the protocol efficiency (channel utilization) and the response time.