Distributed time division multiple access protocol for multi-hop wireless sensor networks

Distributed desynchronization approaches lead to time-division multiple access (TDMA) of the shared medium without requiring a central coordinator. All such methods are based on the principle of reactive listening of periodic fire messages. The advantage of distributed desynchronization (DESYNC-TDMA) is the fact that it comprises a decentralized approach of very low complexity. It is therefore of significant interest to attempt to implement DESYNC-TDMA in an actual network. In this paper, we propose distributed desynchronization in a multi-hop wireless sensor network setting. The key contribution is therefore that the primitive of desynchronization has been extended to a multi-hop DESYNC-TDMA algorithm. Our implementation in a real world wireless sensor network provided measurements of the bandwidth efficiency and the expected delay until convergence to steady state is achieved.