This paper proposes and analyzes a distributed MAC protocol that achieves zero collision with no control message exchange nor synchronization. ZC (ZeroCollision) is neither reservation-based nor dynamic TDMA; the protocol supports variable-length packets and does not lose efficiency when some of the stations do not transmit. At the same time, ZC is not a CSMA; in its steady state, it is completely collision-free. The stations transmit repeatedly in a round-robin order once the convergence state is reached. If some stations skip their turn, their transmissions are replaced by idle @math -second mini-slots that enable the other stations to keep track of their order. Because of its short medium access delay and its efficiency, the protocol supports both real-time and elastic applications. The protocol allows for nodes leaving and joining the network; it can allocate more throughput to specific nodes (such as an access point). The protocol is robust against carrier sensing errors or clock drift. While collision avoidance is guaranteed in a single collision domain, it is not the case in a multiple collision one. However, experiments show ZC supports a comparable amount of goodput to CSMA in a multiple collision domain environment. The paper presents an analysis and extensive simulations of the protocol, confirming that ZC outperforms both CSMA and TDMA at high and low load.
The closest relative of ZC is MSAP @cite_12 . In MSAP, the sequence of mini slots plays a role analogous to a silent polling sequence and the station with token does not release the channel until it empties its buffer. Moreover, in MSAP the access sequence is assumed to be predefined and shared by all stations ahead of time, and no distributed self-stabilizing process is proposed. So MSAP cannot recover from any dynamic event or carrier sensing error. In contrast, ZC is a simple but robust self-stabilizing, solving the time assignment problem in an effective way. BRAM @cite_14 and SUPBRAM @cite_9 are extensions of MSAP with varying length of idle mini slots, but these protocols require packet decoding and global synchronization at every node.
@cite_9 @cite_14 @cite_12
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We describe an adaptive multiaccess channel protocol for use in radio networks with an arbitrary distribution of stationary hidden nodes, which provides the nodes with controlled, collision-free access to the channel. The protocol can be considered to belong to the BRAM [5] protocol family, but differs in significant ways from BRAM. In this paper we describe the tenets of the protocol, then develop the protocol, and finally develop analytic expressions for its expected throughput and delay performance. Given these delay-throughput expressions, we show how protocol "delay" optimization can be achieved by dynamic adjustment of a protocol parameter as the network traffic load changes. In this paper, we first present the broadcast recognizing access method (BRAM), an access protocol suitable for regulating internode communication in either a radio or (coaxial or fiber) cable based communication system. The method avoids collisions, imposes negligible computational requirements on the nodes attempting to transmit, and is fair in the sense that no node will be indefinitely prevented from transmitting. Next we introduce parametric BRAM which attempts to balance the length of inserted channel idle periods, resulting from scheduling effects, against the probability of allowed message collisions. We show that parametric BRAM can be used to realize a method which balances inserted channel idle time against the probability of message collision to yield enhanced performance. For high message loads, parametric BRAM converges to BRAM, while for low and medium loadings it yields throughputs in excess of BRAM, and other methods. Both BRAM and parametric BRAM are discussed under the assumption of homogeneous message arrival rates at the nodes. We conclude by showing how the parametric BRAM can be applied when the nodes operate with heterogeneous or mixed message arrival rates. We study new access schemes for a population of geographically distributed data users who communicate with each other and or with a central station over a multiple-access broadcast ground radio packet-switching channel. We introduce and analyze alternating priorities (AP), round robin (RR), and random order (RO) as new conflict-free methods for multiplexing buffered users without control from a central station. These methods are effective when the number of users is not too large; as the number grows, a large overhead leads to a performance degradation. To reduce this degradation, we consider a natural extension of AP, called minislotted alternating priorities (MSAP) which reduces the overhead and is superior to fixed assignment, polling, and known random access schemes under heavy traffic conditions. At light input loads, only random access schemes outperform MSAP when we have a large population of users. In addition, and of major importance, is the fact that MSAP does not require control from a central station.