Distributed QoS-guaranteed multiple access protocol for mobile Ad Hoc networks

Based on the concept of random contention and collision resolution, a distributed quality-of-service-guaranteed multiple access (QMA) protocol for ad hoc networks is proposed to support multimedia service and multi-hop architecture. In the protocol, nodes broadcast forecast bursts (FBs) to access channel resources before their packets transmissions based on their recent packet delay and the earliest deadline first (EDF) principle, and the one that broadcasts the most KBs gets right to use the channel. Meanwhile, the nodes with real-time traffic can access channel prior to those with non real-time traffic by broadcasting FBs from earlier FB mini-slots, while the nodes with non real-time traffic are allowed to start to broadcast FBs on condition that all the former FB mini-slots for real-time traffic are idle. Therefore, the proposed protocol can provide QoS guarantees for multimedia traffic in mobile ad hoc networks. Finally, by the means of simulations in OPNET modeler, it is shown that the QMA protocol outperforms the IEEE 802.11e protocol in terms of throughput and average packet delay, especially for real-time traffic.