Performance issues of Bluetooth scatternets and other asynchronous TDMA ad hoc networks
Theodoros Salonidis, Leandros Tassiulas · 2002
A common assumption of TDMA-based wireless ad hoc networks is the existence of network-wide slot synchronization. In practice such a mechanism is difficult to support. In asynchronous TDMA systems each link uses a local time slot reference provided by the hardware clock tick of one of the node endpoints. Inevitably, slots will be wasted when nodes switch time slot references. This restricts the rate allocations that can be supported when compared to a perfectly synchronized system. We address this practical performance issue for the case of Bluetooth, a wireless technology operating according to the asynchronous TDMA communication paradigm. We introduce scheduling algorithms that not only guarantee upper bounds on the generated overhead but also target its minimization.