A novel neighbor discovery protocol for ultraviolet wireless networks

Ultraviolet (UV) communication is an attractive option for tactical networks or environmental monitoring. The underlying UV PHY layer has unique characteristics that render previously proposed higher layer protocols for RF communications inappropriate or inefficient. Neighbor discovery is an important functional component of a UV ad hoc wireless network. While there has been some work in UV PHY layers, there is very limited work in network study. In this paper, we propose a new neighbor discovery protocol for this setting; unlike prior protocols, our approach alleviates the negative effects of random access based collisions by choosing a leader that arbitrates the discovery process. Without prior knowledge of the number of nodes in the network, the approach facilitates neighbor discovery in a fast, fair and efficient manner. We perform extensive simulations with a realistic UV PHY layer and demonstrate that the approach reduces the required neighbor discovery time by as much as 90%. We also examine the impact of various system parameters that can be especially useful to UV network and system designers.