ASO-TDMA: Ad-Hoc Self-Organizing TDMA Protocol for Shipborne Ad-Hoc Networks

Abstract

A shipborne ad-hoc network (SANET), a maritime counterpart of the terrestrial VANET, can provide ships with diverse multimedia services by substituting digital maritime VHF communications for expensive satellite communications. This paper propose ASO-TDMA (ad- hoc self-organizing TDMA), a medium access control (MAC) protocol targeting SANETs. Frames in ASO-TDMA are divided into several sub-frames, and based on the proposed rules for assigning time slots, ships can reserve time slots for data transfers only through their available sub-frames. Accordingly, ASO-TDMA provides better performance in terms of reducing receiver collisions from hidden terminal problems than SO-TDMA (self- organizing TDMA) and CS-TDMA (carrier-sensing TDMA), two existing MAC protocols for maritime VHF communications. In addition, the paper compares the performance of the three MAC protocols in terms of delays and collision rates. The results suggest that, given the same delay, ASO-TDMA can reduce the collision rate by as much as 30% in comparison with SO-TDMA and CS-TDMA. Similarly, given the same collision rate, ASO-TDMA can reduce delays by as much as 26% in comparison with SO-TDMA and CS-TDMA.er propose ASO-TDMA (ad- hoc self-organizing TDMA), a medium access control (MAC) protocol targeting SANETs. Frames in ASO-TDMA are divided into several sub-frames, and based on the proposed rules for assigning time slots, ships can reserve time slots for data transfers only through their available sub-frames. Accordingly, ASO-TDMA provides better performance in terms of reducing receiver collisions from hidden terminal problems than SO-TDMA (self- organizing TDMA) and CS-TDMA (carrier-sensing TDMA), two existing MAC protocols for maritime VHF communications. In addition, the paper compares the performance of the three MAC protocols in terms of delays and collision rates. The results suggest that, given the same delay, ASO-TDMA can reduce the collision rate by as m