Design and simulation of dynamic slot allocation protocol for TDMA on tactical Internet

Time slot allocation is one of the most crucial problems in the tactical internet of TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) protocol since the improvement of the network latency and throughput depends on the efficient management of time slot resource. This paper presents a new TDMA based on MAC protocol. The protocol is not only throughput large but also delay sensitive, and it is introduced for the tactical internet of PRNET (Packet Radio Network) topology, which can dynamically allocate time slots according to the number of nodes and the node traffic load. The inter-cluster data forwarding mechanism utilized for cluster head is adopted too. Computer modeling and simulation of the new protocol are carried out by using OPNET Modeler. The simulation results are compared with those of a counterpart which uses the fixed slot allocation TDMA protocol. The test show the protocol is useful for the design of TDMA protocol optimization.