Medium access for a military narrowband wireless ad-hoc network; requirements and initial approaches

This paper presents the initial requirements for a tactical military MANET and their implications on the design of a medium access control (MAC) protocol. The main focus is on TDMA based mobile VHF and UHF networks transferring both data and voice traffic within a bandwidth of 25 kHz. Two MAC approaches are discussed; distributed time division multiple access (DTDMA) and soft reservation schemes such as collision avoidance time allocation (CATA). Both approaches were identified as potential solutions fulfilling most of the requirements. It was found that DTDMA enables less signalling for longer traffic streams (for example voice) compared to the soft reservation approaches. Given a somewhat longer connection setup time, the number of supported voice conversations is expected to be higher than for the soft reservation approach. Shorter data bursts should be handled using a more contention like approach, avoiding lengthy connection setup times.