A Novel Multi-channel Random Competitive MAC Protocol Based on Channel Load Prediction Mechanism for ATNs

For the dramatic decrease of network performance under heavy traffic load in existing medium access control (MAC) protocols in airborne tactical networks, a multi-channel random competitive MAC protocol based on a novel statistical prediction-based access decision mechanism is proposed in this paper. The MAC protocol mainly consists of the channel load prediction mechanism, the packet access decision mechanism, and the multichannel allocation mechanism, etc. By adopting a particle swarm optimization algorithm, the channel load prediction mechanism realizes the adaptive adjustment of prediction step and smoothing coefficient according to the stage feature of the sequence, and improves the accuracy of prediction. Simulation results show that the proposed MAC protocol can achieve effectively improved performance under heavy traffic load.