Time-spread multiple-access (TSMA) protocols for multihop mobile radio networks

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel technique called protocol threading, yielding a deterministic protocol that gives a guaranteed upper bound on the transmission delay of each packet at every node in a multihop mobile network. By eliminating the maximum degree constraint, the new method improves upon existing time-spread multiple-access (TSMA)-type protocols while preserving the advantages of the deterministic operation and topology transparency. We introduce the protocol threading solution, derive the maximum delay bound in a mobile topology, and analyze the performance of the protocol.