Protocols for a wireless-ATM multihop network

A medium access control protocol for a wireless multihop network is described and evaluated. The network is able to guarantee the bandwidth contracted to a connection in a hidden station environment and to most efficiently use the spectrum capacity by providing a mechanism for dynamic channel allocation to services. Both channel and packet switched services are supported, based on real channel connections. Ad-hoc networks without a central control node can be realized due to the ability of any station to route connections according to the current meshing of the network. Channels are established and used for the duration of a so called train of data packets, released when the train ends and reestablished when the next train arrives. To guarantee available capacity of the network for the reestablishment of a connection, connection admission control is applied and new connections are accepted only if spare capacity is available. The traffic performance of the proposed protocol is given by means of a simulation study in an example scenario.