Space-time division multiple access (STDMA) and coordinated, power-aware MACA for mobile ad hoc networks

Space-Time Division Multiple Access (patent pending) is the first position-based TDMA scheduling protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks, and is the generalization of the cellular TDMA with spatial re-use bandwidth allocation paradigm that is encountered in cellular TDMA networks. In STDMA, space is divided into virtual geographic cells (space slots) that are grouped into periodically repeating virtual frames (space frames) in order to facilitate spatial re-use, and time slots are assigned to space slots. Each node is equipped with a means of determining its instantaneous location (i.e., GPS), and therefore always knows the identification of the space slot that contains it, and consequently the time slot that is assigned to it. In this paper, we show that STDMA is a topology-transparent scheduling protocol that guarantees a unique transmitter within a 2-hop neighborhood, and that the maximum number of time slots between successive transmissions by a given node (produced by STDMA) is linearly bounded by the maximum network degree, therefore exponentially outperforming currently proposed topology-transparent TDMA scheduling protocols. We then apply STDMA as the channel access scheme for the control channel of Coordinated MACA, a conflict-free TDMA link-activation protocol.