General slot stealing TDMA scheme to improve the low channel utilization factor

Time division multiple access (TDMA) schemes are intensively being the main solution to provide predictability and timeliness in data communication systems requiring real-time operation. In this paper we investigate the problem of low efficiency and channel utilization, common to the TDMA algorithms. As a solution, we propose a general slot stealing version of TDMA, able to significantly increase the channel utilization factor, while preserving the required level of predictability, both in wired and in wireless real-time networks.