High spatial-reuse distributed slot assignment protocol for wireless ad hoc networks

Application of ad hoc networks in mission-critical environments requires wireless connectivity that meets certain quality-of-service (QoS). In such networks mechanism to control access to the shared wireless channel is crucial to ensure efficient channel utilization and to provide the QoS. TDMA based MAC protocols are considered to be appropriate for this kind of applications; however, finding an efficient and distributed slot assignment protocol is crucial. In this paper, a distributed slot assignment protocol is developed which gives high spatial reuse of the channel. To assign slots, the protocol does not need global topology information: Each node assigns slots based on the local topology information. The protocol can find the conflict-free slot assignment with limited message overhead. We evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol and show that the protocol gives considerably better channel utilization efficiency than exiting distributed slot assignment protocols.