A five-phase reservation protocol (FPRP) for mobile ad hoc networks

A new single channel, time division multiple access (TDMA)-based broadcast scheduling protocol, termed the Five-Phase Reservation Protocol (FPRP), is presented for mobile ad hoc networks. The protocol jointly and simultaneous ly performs the tasks of channel access and node broadcast scheduling. The protocol allows nodes to make reservations within TDMA broadcast schedules. It employs a contention-based mechanism with which nodes compete with each other to acquire TDMA slots. The FPRP is free of the "hidden terminal" pro blem, and is designed such that reservations can be made quickly and effici ently with negligible probability of conflict. It is fully-distributed and parallel (a reservation is made through a localized conversation between no des in a 2-hop neighborhood), and is thus scalable. A "multihop ALOHA" poli cy is developed to support the FPRP. This policy uses a multihop, pseudo-Ba yesian algorithm to calculate contention probabilities and enable faster co nvergence of the reservation procedure. The performance of the protocol, me asured in terms of scheduling quality, scheduling overhead and robustness i n the presence of nodal mobility, has been studied via simulations. The res ults showed that the protocol works very well in all three aspects. Some fu ture work and applications are also discussed.