Key-Activation Multiple Access (KAMA)

KAMA is introduced and analyzed. KAMA organizes the channel into a sequence of equal time slots and uses a distributed election algorithm to determine which of the known nodes have the priority to transmit during each time slot. KAMA eliminates the need for special signaling packets or the use of special time slots dedicated for signaling packets by means of transmission keys. A node that is unknown to its neighbors can compete for transmission to become known in a subset of time slots in each frame. This subset is defined by a transmission key that maps its identifier to a pattern of on and off time slots in each frame. The performance of KAMA is analyzed analytically and by simulation. KAMA is shown to be more efficient than NAMA, TDMA, CSMA, and CSMA/CA.