MD-MAC: A Distributed TDMA Protocol Based on Desynchronization for Multi-Hop Topologies

Sensors (Basel). 2019 Nov 21;19(23):5102. doi: 10.3390/s19235102.

Abstract

Communication resource allocation and collision detection are important for the Ad Hoc network. Considering the existing TDMA-MAC protocol, the allocation way based on fixed time slot is mostly adapted, which cannot guarantee the performance and be not flexible about the business for different nodes in the distributed network. Desynchronization, as a biological term, can be utilized in the Ad Hoc network. It implies that sensor nodes interleave periodic events to occur in succession through negotiation and adjustment. In this paper, we design a MAC protocol(MD-MAC) in the multi-hop network based on the idea of Desynchronization to solve the problem caused by stale information and lay down the adjustment rule to allocate the communication resource. Also, we propose a scheme which the network can detect collision in a self-adapting way. Finally, we simulate the proposed protocol to evaluate the performance. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can accelerate the convergence speed of resource allocation, solve collision and improve the efficiency of the distributed network.

Keywords: Ad Hoc network; TDMA scheduling; time slot allocation.