In this paper, a new medium access control (MAC) protocol
entitled three-phase multiple access with continual contention
resolution (TPMA-CCR) is proposed for wireless multi-hop ad hoc
networks. This work is motivated by the previously known threephase
multiple access (TPMA) scheme of Hou and Tsai [2] which
is the suitable MAC protocol for clustering multi-hop ad hoc networks
owing to its beneficial attributes such as easy collision detectible,
anonymous acknowledgment (ACK), and simple signaling
format for the broadcast-natured networks. The new TPMA-CCR
is designed to let all contending nodes participate in contentions for
a medium access more aggressively than the original TPMA and
with continual resolving procedures as well. Through the systematical
performance analysis of the suggested protocol, it is also shown
that the maximum throughput of the new protocol is not only superior
to the original TPMA, but also improves on the conventional
slotted carrier sensemultiple access (CSMA) under certain circumstances.
Thus, in terms of performance, TPMA-CCR can provide
an attractive alternative to other contention-based MAC protocols
for multi-hop ad hoc networks.