Random scheduling medium access for wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper, we introduce a novel random scheduling strategy for distributed medium access in spread-spectrum (SS) and multipacket reception networks. The proposed random scheduling (RASC) protocol uses a special method of seed exchange in which the seeds are used for pseudo-random generation. The RASC utilizes the seeds for randomly decomposing the network into independent clusters containing a single receiver. After the decomposition, the network resembles to the up-link of cellular networks whose medium access techniques are well developed. The application of RASC in spread-spectrum networks avoids collisions and provides Quality-of-Service guarantee at the MAC layer. The throughput performance of the protocol is analyzed in fully connected and Manhattan networks using analysis and simulations. While still being a distributed random access protocol, the RASC offers throughput which is much closer to the network capacity compared to the pure random access protocols like slotted ALOHA.