CROMA - An enhanced slotted MAC protocol for MANETs

TDMA based MAC protocols can provide a very good utilization of the shared radio resources, especially at high input loads, in synchronized mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Global positioning systems like GPS or GALLILEO should provide a very good timing accuracy for synchronization of nodes. This paper presents a new medium access protocol for mobile ad hoc networks, called CROMA. CROMA is collision-free and receiver-oriented. It operates in a slotted environment, in a dynamic and distributed way. In this protocol, receivers act as local base stations and can manage one or several communications on a single slot. Thus, sophisticated functions are allowed at higher layers. Moreover, the hidden terminal as well as the exposed terminal problems are handled by CROMA. A theoretical analysis and extensive simulations show that CROMA can reach very high throughputs.