A new single channel, time division multiple access (TDMA)-based broadcast scheduling protocol, termed the Five-Phase Reservation Protocol (FPRP), is presented for mobile ad hoc networks. The protocol jointly and simultaneously performs the tasks of channel access and node broadcast scheduling. The protocol allows nodes to make reservations within TDMA broadcast schedules. It employs a contention-based mechanism with which nodes compete with each other to acquire TDMA slots. The FPRP is free of the "hidden terminal" problem, and is designed such that reservations can be made quickly and efficiently with negligible probability of conflict. It is fully-distributed and parallel (a reservation is made through a localized conversation between nodes in a 2-hop neighborhood), and is thus scalable. A "multihop ALOHA" policy is developed to support the FPRP. This policy uses a multihop, pseudo-Bayesian algorithm to calculate contention probabilities and enable faster convergence of the reservation procedure. The performance of the protocol, measured in terms of scheduling quality, scheduling overhead and robustness in the presence of nodal mobility, has been studied via simulations. The results showed that the protocol works very well in all three aspects. Some future work and applications are also discussed.

A Five-Phase Reservation Protocol (FPRP) for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

This paper presents a distributed implementation of RAND, a randomized time slot scheduling algorithm, called DRAND. DRAND runs in O(δ) time and message complexity where δ is the maximum size of a two-hop neighborhood in a wire-less network while message complexity remains O(δ), assuming that message delays can be bounded by an unknown constant.DRAND is the first fully distributed version of RAND. The algorithm is suitable for a wireless network where most nodes do not move,such as wireless mesh networks and wireless sensor networks.We implement the algorithm in TinyOS and demonstrate its performance in a real testbed of Mica2 nodes. The algorithm does not require any time synchronization and is shown to be effective in adapting to local topology changes without incurring global overhead in the scheduling.Because of these features, it can also be used even for other scheduling problems such as frequency or code scheduling (for FDMA or CDMA) or local identifier assignment for wireless networks where time synchronization is not enforced.

DRAND: distributed randomized TDMA scheduling for wireless ad-hoc networks

This paper presents a distributed implementation of RAND, a randomized time slot scheduling algorithm, called DRAND. DRAND runs in O(delta) time and message complexity where delta is the maximum size of a two-hop neighborhood in a wireless network while message complexity remains O(delta), assuming that message delays can be bounded by an unknown constant. DRAND is the first fully distributed version of RAND. The algorithm is suitable for a wireless network where most nodes do not move, such as wireless mesh networks and wireless sensor networks. We implement the algorithm in TinyOS and demonstrate its performance in a real testbed of Mica2 nodes. The algorithm does not require any time synchronization and is shown to be effective in adapting to local topology changes without incurring global overhead in the scheduling. Because of these features, it can also be used even for other scheduling problems such as frequency or code scheduling (for FDMA or CDMA) or local identifier assignment for wireless networks where time synchronization is not enforced. We further evaluate the effect of the time-varying nature of wireless links on the conflict-free property of DRAND-assigned time slots. This experiment is conducted on a 55-node testbed consisting of the more recent MicaZ sensor nodes.

DRAND: Distributed Randomized TDMA Scheduling for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

With the growing interest in the use of autonomous computing, sensing and actuating devices for various applications such as smart grids, home networking, smart environments and cities, health care, and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication has become an important networking paradigm. However, in order to fully exploit the applications facilitated by M2M communications, adequate support from all layers in the network stack must first be provided in order to meet their service requirements. This paper presents a survey of the requirements, technical challenges, and existing work on medium access control (MAC) layer protocols for supporting M2M communications. This paper first describes the issues related to efficient, scalable, and fair channel access for M2M communications. Then, in addition to protocols that have been developed specifically for M2M communications, this paper reviews existing MAC protocols and their applicability to M2M communications. This survey paper then discusses ongoing standardization efforts and open problems for future research in this area.

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A Survey of MAC Layer Issues and Protocols for Machine-to-Machine Communications

With the rapid development of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and its applications, synchronization between terminals in mobile ad hoc environments becomes feasible at a low cost. Thus, slotted-channel-based medium access control (MAC) schemes like time division multiple access (TDMA) also become interesting for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In this paper, we extend the classical centralized and slotted packet reservation multiple access (PRMA) scheme to a simple distributed PRMA (D-PRMA) as a MAC scheme for MANETs, with emphasis on voice application support. The major efforts of D-PRMA include 1) a simple slot reservation mechanism for voice traffic at the level of "talkspurt" without relying on any central entity and 2) a simple solution for the hidden and exposed terminal problems uniquely present in wireless ad hoc environments. The performance of D-PRMA has been investigated by analysis and computer simulations in comparison with IEEE 802.11. The results show that D-PRMA is much more suitable than IEEE 802.11 for voice application.

A simple distributed PRMA for MANETs

A new single channel, time division multiple access (TDMA) scheduling protocol, termed “EvolutionaryTDMA”, is presented for mobile ad hoc networks. The protocol allows nodes in an ad hoc network to reserve conflict-free TDMA slots for transmission to their neighbors. Two topology-dependent schedules are generated and maintained by the protocol: a broadcast schedule suitable for network control traffic and a mixed schedule which combines unicast, multicast and broadcast transmissions for user data traffic. The schedules are frequently updated in an evolutionary manner to maintain conflict-free transmissions. The protocol executes across the entire network simultaneously in a fully-distributed and parallel fashion. Traffic prioritization and Quality of Service (QoS) can be supported. Simulations have shown that the performance of the E-TDMA protocol is close to that of centralized algorithms, while being insensitive to network size in terms of scheduling quality and scheduling overhead. It is a scalable protocol suitable for very large networks, and networks of varying size.

M. Scott Corson

Papers

An Evolutionary-TDMA Scheduling Protocol (E-TDMA) for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks