TMAC: Timestamp-Ordered MAC for CSMA/CA Wireless Mesh Networks

The authors propose TMAC, a timestamp-ordered MAC protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). TMAC extends CSMA/CA by scheduling data packets based on their age. Prior to transmitting a data packet, a transmitter broadcasts a request control message appended with a timestamp to a selected list of neighbors. It can proceed with the transmission only if it receives a sufficient number of grant control messages from these neighbors. A grant message indicates that the associated data packet has the lowest timestamp of all the packets pending transmission at the local transmit queue.