Topology-transparent reservation time division multiple access in multihop ad hoc networks

In this paper, an optimal topology-transparent reservation time division multiple access (OTTR-TDMA) protocol is proposed for multihop ad hoc networks. Our MAC protocol is based on a slotted TDMA architecture in which every slot is divided into reservation phase and data transmission phase. Every node not only transmits data in its assigned slots that are computed by Chlamtac’s algorithm, but it also utilizes free slots among its non-assigned slots through reservation. Through theoretical analysis, we derive the proper parameter for the best performance. We compare our protocol with other TDMA protocols and find that it gives better performance. Simulation results show that they are consistent with our analytical results.