A novel broadcasting MAC algorithm for ad hoc networks

Wireless ad hoc networks with broadcasting are widely applied in IoT and emergency situations as the network can be set up without traditional infrastructures. In this paper, we propose a TDMA-based MAC algorithm which supports data transmission by broadcasting. The algorithm is similar with the mechanism in NbIA algorithm 1,2 in neighbour discovery, but differs a lot in collision detection and slot allocation. Our algorithm can dynamically allocate slots according to the demand of nodes and ensures every node get at least one slot a cycle. Based on spatial reuse, idle slots might be found and be used as extra slots of nodes which can promote throughput of our algorithm. After the network converges, only a few nodes need to adjust their slots to adapt to topology changes, while most of the nodes maintain their slots to transmit data. The performance of our algorithm and NbIA algorithm are compared with OPNET simulation. The results show that our algorithm outperforms NbIA especially in convergence time and average throughput of nodes.