Distributed dynamic slot assignment scheme for fast broadcast transmission in tactical ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose a fast, dynamic slot assignment scheme to reduce timeslot access delay for newly arrived nodes in tactical ad hoc networks. As there is no central coordinator in distributed networks, a newly arrived node in conventional schemes must negotiate separately with each of its neighbors for timeslot allocation. However, it is not necessary to negotiate with all the neighboring nodes in a specific case. This can result in unnecessary join delay that reduces network efficiency and responsiveness. The proposed scheme simplifies the slot assignment process by using mini-slots to share control packets for short periods. Numerical analysis and extensive simulation show that our scheme can significantly reduce the timeslot access delay compared with other existing slot assignment schemes. In addition, we investigate the effect of the mini-slot overhead on the performance of the proposed scheme.