Using Radio Connectivity to Define Transmission Schedules in Multihop Wireless Networks

Spatial Classification Multiple Access (SCMA) is introduced as an example of using the radio connectivity among nodes for the dynamic establishment of distributed transmission schedules in wireless multi hop wireless networks. The shared channel is organized into transmission frames whose length in number of time slots is defined solely by the need to avoid hidden-terminal interference, rather than some arbitrary number of time slots related to network size. SCMA is shown to attain feasible transmission schedules within a finite time, and is compared with representative examples of traditional approaches to medium access control (MAC) based on contention, transmission scheduling, and reservations. The results of the analysis show that SCMA attains higher packet delivery ratio, lower average end-to-end delays, and better useful throughput than traditional MAC protocols.