A time space division multiple access (TSDMA) protocol for multihop wireless networks with access points

We propose time division multiple access with circular reservation (TDMA/CR), a time/space division multiple access (TSDMA)-based medium access control (MAC) protocol for wireless mobile networks with control units, including wireless LANs, cellular networks with ad hoc relaying capability, and ad hoc networks with access points or clusterheads. Different from the MAC protocol of IEEE 802.11, TDMA/CR is centralized and can utilize the computation capability of base stations or access points to increase network throughput, reduce latency, and provide QoS guarantees. We evaluate the performance of TDMA/CR and show that the utilization achievable by the wireless-tree (or splitting) channel access mechanisms of TDMA/CR is about 40% to 46% and the channel access delay is small and bounded. Moreover, TDMA/CR can achieve considerably higher throughput (e.g., by a factor of about 3 or higher) due to its support for variable-radius transmissions in ad hoc wireless networks.