Mobility-independent flooding for real-time multimedia applications in ad hoc networks

This paper describes the use of time spread multiple access (TSMA) protocols for realizing the dissemination ("flooding") of data and/or control packets in networks characterized by the lack of a fixed infrastructure (ad hoc networks). We show that, due to the unique characteristics of TSMA, namely, that it is independent of the changes in the network topology due to node mobility and it is deterministic, it is effective for implementing and/or supporting those ad hoc network primitives that are crucial for delay-sensitive applications, such as multimedia. Through the use of simulation, we finally show that the average broadcast delay for TSMA-based flooding remains stable for higher network loads when compared to the average delay of simple TDMA, ALOHA and slotted ALOHA-based flooding.