Abstract
In this letter, we propose a fast dynamic slot assignment (F-DSA) protocol to reduce timeslot access delay of a newly arrived node in ad hoc networks. As there is no central coordinator, a newly arrived node needs separate negotiation with all the neighboring nodes for assigning slots to itself. Thus, it may result in network join delay and this becomes an obstacle for nodes to dynamically join and leave networks. In order to deal with this issue better, F-DSA simplifies the slot assignment process. It provides frequent opportunities to assign slots by using mini-slots to share control packets in a short time. Numerical analysis and extensive simulation show that F-DSA can significantly reduce the timeslot access delay compared with other existing slot assignment protocols. In addition, we investigate the effect of the mini-slot overhead on the performance.
