DA-STDMA: A novel Media Access Control Protocol for Mobile Ad-hoc Networks Based on Directional Antenna

In this paper we present a media access control protocol in MANETs (Mobile Ad-hoc Networks) named DA-STDMA (Directional Antenna Spatial Time Division Multiple Access), which is designed specifically to operate in a multi-hop ad hoc network where the physical layer of the network employs directional antennas. A slot allocation algorithm is proposed to determining the assignment of capacities for the links of the network. The performance of this algorithm and the DA-STDMA protocol are evaluated via simulation studies. The results show that DA-STDMA has a higher reusability of timeslots, which greatly optimizes network resource, saves network overhead, and transmits more data in a specific period of time.