Zero-Exposure Distributed TDMA Using Time-Coded Packet Transmissions

This paper proposes a distributed TDMA slot allocation protocol that relies on zero amount of explicit information exchange among the participating nodes. This novel property allows the protocol to work in restricted environments such as in privacy-sensitive body area networks and various military networks in which nodes may need to cooperate in distributed TDMA but are not allowed to explicitly exchange any information in order to preserve their anonymity. This paper introduces an innovative approach of time-coded packet transmissions for implicitly exchanging slot timing information. It is shown that using such implicit information, together with a notion of pattern based shadow packet, the nodes are able to self-allocate collision-free TDMA slots in a Zero Exposure manner. The protocol is evaluated and its performance has been shown using extensive simulation models.