TDMA, Service for Sensor Networks
Sandeep S. Kulkarni and Mahesh Arumugam
Abstract
Sensors networks are often constrained by limited power and limited
communication range. If a sensor receives two messages simultaneously then they
collide and both messages become incomprehensible. In this paper, we present a
simple time division multiple access (TDMA) algorithm for assigning time slots
to sensors and show that it provides a significant reduction in the number of
collisions incurred during communication. We present TDMA algorithms customized
for different communication patterns, namely, broadcast, convergecast and local
gossip, that occur commonly in sensor networks. Our algorithms are
self-stabilizing, i.e., TDMA is restored even if the system reaches an
arbitrary state where the sensors are corrupted or improperly initialized.
Sensor networks are gaining prominence recently due to their application in
unattended tracking and detection of undesirable objects, hazard detection,
data gathering, environment monitoring, and so on. However, sensors are often
constrained by limited power and limited communication range. Hence, they need
to collaborate with each other to perform these tasks. One of the major
problems in sensor networks is message collision. Specifically, if a sensor
receives two messages simultaneously then they collide and both messages become
incomprehensible. Collision avoidance techniques such as carrier sense multiple
access (CSMA) are proposed to deal with these collisions.
Paper:
Return to the publication list
Return to the Sandeep's home page