A Dynamic TDMA Slot Scheduling(DTSS) scheme for efficient channel allocation in tactical ad hoc networks

TDMA protocols are preferred in tactical wireless network because of their capability to support QoS. In dynamic TDMA protocol, the control slots are statically assigned to nodes, while the reservation slots are assigned on demand based on the node's traffic rate requirements. Such kind of protocols result in poor bandwidth efficiency due to static control slots especially in a tactical environment, where because of mobility, the node density keeps on changing. Therefore, the fixed control slot allocation techniques do not utilize bandwidth efficiently and cannot support better delay performance, even if the network degree is less than the maximum network size. In this paper, we present a Dynamic TDMA Slot Scheduling (DTSS) scheme for control as well as traffic slot allocation that enables a network to adapt the changing topology and traffic patterns. The proposed algorithm takes care of non-occupied control slots due to topology change and effectively transfers these slots from one type to another type to support unpredictable traffic needs of the network. We discuss the design of this protocol and evaluate its bandwidth-efficiency for both point to point unicast and broadcast traffic.